


The Doctor Is Out (Sorry, We're On Vacation)

by SensiblePsychopath



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Campfires, Camping AU, Emotions, F/F, Fishing, Fluff, Herbalism, Hiking AU, Mentions of other OW agents - Freeform, Some German, don't eat plants you don't know kids, i also don't know how old they are, i guess, i'll add tags as i add chapters, idk when this is set, if there is a weird plottwist that's my brother's fault, quite young i guess, sometime where there wasn't a fallout within OW, they're being cute with each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-11
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2018-12-26 12:47:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 46,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12059280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SensiblePsychopath/pseuds/SensiblePsychopath
Summary: It took some effort and work to convince Fareeha to take some time off. Hell, it was easier to convince Ana to let them go for a week or two. But that didn't matter now.Hiking is the perfect way to spend some quality time with nature; and your girlfriend.





	1. Vacation is Good for You!

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HealthDrink](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HealthDrink/gifts).



> This is the re-written version of an original work my brother thought would be cute as a Pharmercy AU.
> 
> Translations as well as A/Ns will be at the end of each chapter.

Angela jumped out of the old train, excited. She had shouldered her backpack and adjusted the straps around her middle before turning around and beaming at Fareeha. She wasn’t quite as excited as her girlfriend, but that didn’t dull Angela’s mood in the slightest. She took the arm that was offered to her and together they walked through the small building onto a dusty street. Despite the tired look of the village there were flowers lining the streets, they were perched on windowsills and next to doors.

“You know where we have to go, right?” Fareeha frowned at the cracked glass and broken down door of the first house they came by. Clearly, the war had left its traces even all the way out here. Maybe it wasn’t bombings or bullet holes, it rarely was in places like this. It was rioting teenagers and people accusing their neighbours of being spies and villagers taking justice into their own hands. People disappearing and it being blamed on supernatural forces, which never seemed to leave places like these.

Superstition was probably strongly rooted in the minds of these people, just as well as other old worldviews. Fareeha let go of Angela’s hand.

Angela nodded. “The only yellow house at the market square,” she said.

“And you know where the market square is?”

“This is a village of six hundred people.” How hard could it be?

“Right,” Fareeha let her voice trail off.

Fareeha shifted her attention back to the houses. They were small but each had it’s own yard, there were vegetable gardens, flowerbeds and apple trees, even an occasional cherry tree. It was definitely quaint and it made her uneasy.

“Stop thinking so much, we’ll be fine!” Angela’s voice was reassuring and not at all reproachful, as if she had to convince herself a bit.

Fareeha smiled. “I think they have cars that run on gas here.” She grimaced exaggeratedly, making Angela laugh.

“Maybe they even travel on horseback, so what. Less chances of being recognised.”

“Better chances of being chased out with pitchforks for not being in a ‘god-fearing, straight relationship’, too,” Fareeha pointed out.

“Stop thinking so much.”

“Alright, Doctor Ziegler, if that’s what you’d recommend.”

“Good.”

And that was that. 

Angela put her attention on the view before them. The street made a gentle curve, going out of sight behind an obviously uninhabited house. The houses here had less yard-space, some of them didn’t have one at all. When they walked around the curve the houses started lining the street closely. A bench stood next to most of the doors and the number of people they saw increased, as well. It seemed to be a completely different place all of the sudden.

“You gotta admit, it's beautiful around here,” Angela said. 

Fareeha hummed in agreement. And it was. Just a different kind of beauty than the two of them were used to.

Angela caught the other woman’s attention by nudging her in the side with a pointy elbow. Fareeha was just about to complain when she followed Angela’s line of sight and found that the street opened up into a broad market square with a well in the dead center, that made the houses look boring and even more sad than they already were.

“That’s a lot of ornaments for a place like this…”

“It is advertised as the best thing this town possesses, it ought to be something,” Angela informed her. “And there’s our house!”

Again Fareeha followed her gaze, this time directly at a mustard yellow house. It was truly an unfortunate colour to be placed next to a washed out blue, but luckily they didn’t plan on staying for long anyway.

A short knock on the door and they let themselves in. A tired looking woman waved at them from a high desk and looked at them expectantly. Her eyes were sunken a little too deep but quick to look them over and evaluate each of them. Everyone had to learn to pick up on danger in times like these, only that some were more obvious in their efforts than others.

Angela smiled at the middle-aged woman brightly but polite. “Hello! I called about a room?”

“You have a name?”

_Oh wow_ , Fareeha thought, _friendly as in every big city._

Angela seemed unfazed by it. “Ziegler, Angela. It’s supposed to be a room for two, no breakfast.”

The woman typed something on her keyboard, the name she was given probably, and reached for a key in a colourful box. “Up the stairs, third door to the left.”

“Thanks a lot,” Fareeha chimed in before Angela could say anything and took the key.

Together they  made their way to the room they were given the key to. The door unlocked easily and despite the rusty look on the outside the room was clean. Clean sheets, clean corners, the toilet paper was neatly folded to a point.

“Do you need a break?” Angela looked around the room briefly, but she didn’t seem eager to stay for too long.

“Five minutes and I’ll be good,” Fareeha promised and stole a quick kiss before leaving to the bathroom.

Angela made good use of the time by pulling up a map on her tablet and studying the trail they would take closely. They had only booked the room in the village so they’d have a place to come back to in case the weather really didn’t want them to have an adventure. The actual place they wanted to stay at was a ranger hut at a mountain lake.

The bathroom door swung open and Fareeha glanced over Angela’s shoulder. “Think we’ll find stones there?”

“Stones? At a lake in the mountains? What are the chances?”

“Rhodonite. That’s a stone, right? Lake Rhodonite should therefore have stones.”

“It’s a mineral.”

“Whatever.”

Angela closed the map and locked the tablet before putting it into her backpack to leave. While Fareeha was locking the door she spoke up again. “And yes, there has been rhodonite found there. You’ll see why it’s called what it’s called when we get there.”

“I bet kids love that place.”

Angela looked at her, confused. “Why so sarcastic?”

“It’s not the easiest word to be found in the dictionary.”

“It’s dubbed ‘Fairytale Lake’, if that’s any better.”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess.”

When they stepped back into the entrance hall of sorts, that really was just a small room and not a hall at all, they were met with a surprised look. “You are leaving us already?”

“We don’t want to waste any time. There’s a good way ahead of us,” Angela informed happily, friendly as ever. Fareeha stuck to a supportive nod.

“Very well. Be careful and stay on the trails if you can.”

“Why?” Fareeha asked. She liked to know what she was up against in the worst case, that's all. 

“Those who run from the law hide in the forest. 's nothing new.”

Fareeha nodded slowly. “What about animals? Wolfs? Bears? Anything?”

“Been wiped out a long time,” the woman sounded neither happy nor concerned about that. “Foxes and deer, maybe a wild boar, that's what you'll come across. If anything at all.”

“Thanks.”

Angela nodded along. “We'll be in touch,” she opened the door and held it for Fareeha. “Have a good day,” Angela called over her shoulder and followed outside.

It was only eight thirty but the town seemed wide awake. Especially in the market square. Fareeha guessed it had been more glorious at one point, but the products offered still looked quite good. Fruit, vegetables, clothes, yarn, pottery, tools. There was about everything one could need, and there were definitely a lot more people than she had expected.

“You think all these people live here?”

Angela shrugged. “Maybe it's the only market around here? There should be a few more gatherings of houses in each direction of the railway.”

Fareeha hummed. “Could you live in a place like this?”

“I'd probably miss life as a medic.”

“You could be the village’s doctor or whatever,” Fareeha mused.

Angela shot her a glance. “And you'll be securing all these houses? Start a patrol in the neighbourhood? Put the police outa work?” There was a smile on her face.

“Maybe I would,” Fareeha challenged.

Angela shook her head. “As awful as it sounds, I would probably miss the missions. And about everyone at the base. I'm not old enough for retirement.”

“Don't need to convince me. This isn't a place I'd like to frequent.”

“It isn't? Seems like your kinda place,” Angela said with a smile.

“Totally,” Fareeha smiled back. “You wanna look at the market stands?”

“Just a bit.”

It wasn't the easiest task to find a way through the people, let alone with backpacks that took the space of another person itself. The first stand they stopped at had silver and golden jewelry lined on the table, filigree bracelets, plump rings and kitschy necklaces. They didn't get much more than two pairs of raised eyebrows, before the couple made their way to the next merchant.

The only thing that managed to really catch Angela’s attention was a small, old man selling jumpers and coats made out of wool. He also had yarn, hats, gloves and socks on his table, most in white and grey, but some of them were dyed bright colours. Angela picked up a pair of socks, feeling them between thumb and forefinger. They were most definitely made by hand, a nice pattern knitted around the ankles and probably long enough to go halfway up the leg. They were a light grey and a bit thicker than needed in weather like this. She passed them to Fareeha wordlessly and picked up the next pair. They weren’t as thick, but went higher up, maybe around the knee. They were a brilliant white that Angela wasn’t sure was natural, so she asked just that.

“All natural. Pollution is less severe around here. My sheep are healthy. The healthiest around. None are fed as good as mine. They have a good life, a good life, ma’am. You see, I love them. I really do. They’re all I have, like family –“

Angela smiled and nodded along to the man’s ramblings, while thinking about the socks some more. Fareeha held onto the items she was given patiently. She had to admit, they were really nice. Especially during the cold winters in Switzerland they would be a good addition. Angela didn’t seem to mind them as much, but some of their teammates weren’t a fan of the cold at all. Fareeha didn’t really care for it, but she didn’t mind it all that much either. You can get used to anything.

“We’ll take these.” The socks were taken from Fareeha’s hands and thrust into the direction of the short man in front of them. He had stopped rambling while Fareeha had been lost in thought and now started beaming at the women brightly. He probably didn’t get as many customers as he’d like nowadays and Angela had just picked out about seven pairs of socks and a bunch of hats as well as scarfs and even two jumpers. Probably a month’s business in just ten minutes.

There was no point in taking all of that up a mountain so they made a point to quickly take it back to their room. The woman still looked as tired as before but now she had a steaming mug in one hand. The smell of lavender and chamomile filled the small room and Fareeha couldn’t help but feel odd in the tiny space. She did feel welcome, but still not like she belonged there.

When Angela came back downstairs the whole atmosphere seemed to shift. She did that to people, make them feel safe and at home. Which probably helped a lot in her line of work.

“Seid vorsichtig da draußen, Angela.“

The unexpected change in language made her raise an eyebrow. “Werden wir, danke.”

The woman smiled at her. “Hier.” She held a hand out to Angela, who took the small velvet bag. “Pass gut drauf auf, dann passt es auf euch auf.” Her smile seemed sincere and Angela nodded once.

“Danke.”

She smiled once more at the woman and nodded for Fareeha to follow her outside. The bag was securely tugged into one of her pockets before anyone could see it, which also kept Fareeha from getting a good look at it.

“What was that all about?”

“We keep the bag close and it’ll protect us.”

“You believe that?” Fareeha wasn’t sure what to think bout that.

Angela shrugged. “The people around here do and there usually is some truth in stuff like this. There is a reason why witchcraft has been a consistent thing for so long.”

“Won’t hurt to keep it, I suppose.” She pondered over it for a few moments. “What will it keep us protected from, though? Animals or general bad luck? Something else?”

Angela shrugged. “I don’t know. We’ll see.”

“If we’re unfortunate, yes.”

“Let’s just hope for the best.”

“You gonna start preaching about positivity and optimism now?” There was no venom in her voice, just fond amusement.

“What if?” Angela challenged, a similarly playful tone to her voice.

Fareeha sighed dramatically, a small pout faked onto her lips. “There’s nothing I could do about it, I guess.”

This time they were walking along the very side of the market square, just to pass through and into the street right across from where they came from in the first place. It was similar, only that it didn’t curve at all. It was about the straightest possible and gave a perfect view onto what was coming. The name “Steep Point” definitely had been chosen wisely.

“That never stopped you.” If anything, situations that seemed lost always made Fareeha double her efforts.

“Yeah well, this is neither about winning something nor about saving someone, so I’ll just let it go, y’know?” Fareeha decided with a smile.

“Good call,” Angela said and hooked her arm under Fareeha’s.

“I was right though.”

“About what?”

“When we first got off the train I knew these people were big into superstitions.”

Angela clicked her tongue. “I wouldn’t say witchcraft is purely based on superstitions.”

“How come? A woman of science like you?” Still, Fareeha smiled a bit.

“I basically bring back people from the dead, just take Genji as an example. That’s something science wouldn’t believe just fifty years ago. Besides, herbs and plants in general have enormous healing powers, if you know how to use them.”

“I get that, but a bunch of whatever she even put in the bag to ward off bad luck? Seems pre-tt-y superstitious to me.”

The street started to be more of a dirt trail again. Houses had gardens again and trees became more frequent. It wouldn’t be long until the trail they were walking on would be far steeper, but the two of them weren’t trained in fighting for no reason. Hiking was made far easier when your job needed you to be in excellent shape.

“I’m not arguing with that,” Angela nodded, “I’m just saying, that it has worked in some way for some people. Otherwise it wouldn’t be something that’s still practised today, would it?”

“So you think magic is real?”

“Have you  _ seen  _ the Shimada dragons? Those most definitely are not something science made up.”

Fareeha hummed. Then she snorted a laugh, and when Angela looked at her curious she kept smiling. “My mother most certainly tried to raise me a believer of the supernatural. I kinda pushed it away over the years, I guess.”

“Mother knows best,” Angela said in her best imitation of Ana Amari.

“Don’t do that, you’re too good at that.”

“It’s just a scratch, you’ll be fine.” The end was ruined by Angela laughing at the uneasy gaze she got from her girlfriend before they broke into full-on laughter.

“I bet you could do that so much better than me.”

“Speaking the same language as her helps,” Fareeha pointed out and Angela just agreed with a positive shrug.

“How did you convince her to let us go in the first place?”

“Honestly? ‘twas easier than convincing you.”

Fareeha raised her eyebrows at that, doubtful. “You just went up to her like ‘hey Ana, I’m going to take your daughter out on a hiking trip. Can we have the next two weeks off?’ That worked?”

“Well, I did talk to Gabriel first and told Jack about it. Jack wanted us to take some time off anyway. And then I told Ana that we were going.”

“You didn’t even ask?”

“We are grown ass women, I don’t have to ask your mother permission to go on vacation.”

“You better ask her permission to marry me, though.”

“I will.”

“You are going to propose to me?”

“Not before asking your mother.”

“So you are not going to propose to me?”

“Who knows.” Angela smiled but kept her eyes trained forward.

“You are a cruel woman, Angela, cruel, do you hear me.”

“You could propose to me just as well.”

“Whom should I ask permission?”

Angela laughed. “Your mother?” It earned her a playful hit to the upper arm.

“I’m not dependent on her.”

“I know. She still is your mother though, and in times like these…” Angela didn’t finish. They both knew what she meant.

Angela let go of Fareeha when it started to get the actual steep part of the trail. They needed their space to keep their balance on the loose rubble that made up some of the way. Grass had begun to reclaim the once neat trail and the dirt seemed to slide around with every step they took.

“This is worse than any field trip we took with Gabriel and Jack,” Angela laughed and pushed a stray lock out of her face.

It wasn’t enough to even get them out of breath, it was more annoying than anything else. It had been a difficult trail when there were people actually caring for them, but now it looked like no one had seen it as their responsibility for years.

“And whose fault is that?” Fareeha asked, fondly.

Angela chuckled. „Oh  _ excuse _ me. Next time I’ll make sure to clean up the trails all by myself before I ask something oh so awful from you.”

“Good.” The grin on Fareeha’s face made Angela smile at her over her shoulder.

“Look where you’re stepping,” Fareeha advised.

“But I’d rather be looking at you.” She did as she was told anyway. She might have trusted Fareeha with catching her if she fell, but that would probably have ended with them tumbling down the hill together.

“But how am I supposed to secretly look at you when you’re looking at me?”

“Step one: Don’t tell the person you secretly want to look at that you want to look at them. Then go from there.”

“Wow, thanks. That really opened my eyes.”

“We’re gonna get you promoted, with how great my advice is.” This time Angela didn’t turn back to show her smile, trusting that Fareeha could hear it in her voice perfectly fine.

“What would I do without you?” Fareeha sighed exaggeratedly, but smiling. Her face began to hurt from all the smiling, but it was a nice ache.

Angela was blocking her view of the trail in front of them, so Fareeha leaned to one side slightly to get a better look. They had already made it two thirds of the way, as far as she could tell. Trees were blocking the direct view, but it looked to be less steep at least.

Angela’s breathing started getting a bit heavier, but so did Fareeha’s so she didn’t think much about it. This path would probably get the better of most people she knew. If all of these paths were only half as steep as this first one they’d come home prepared for anything they could be thrown into, because that wouldn’t be considered vacation. It would come closer to a training camp they voluntarily put themselves through. Well, Angela put them through it, but those were details that were not of importance.

Maybe she could have done some better research on the place they were going. Their destination would be rewarding, though, she was sure of it.

“Come on, last hundred meters!”

“You know that for sure?” Fareeha teased.

“Yeees?” She didn’t. Fareeha knew as much.

“Keeping a positive mindset is important when facing challenges.”

“And you wonder why you are the mum-friend in any group of people,” Fareeha teased.

Angela huffed. “I’m not! I don’t mind it either. I just think it’s weird to be called mum. Even jokingly.”

“Yeah, but no one actually does that.”

“Not to my face, no.”

Fareeha raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. 

“You know if we actually got married you would be mum number two.”

“I doubt anyone sees me as a motherly figure.”

“You don’t know that.”

“But you do?” The smile was back in her voice.

“I think you would make a great parent.”

“Maybe one day.”

Angela smiled but didn't answer anymore. The path made a sharp turn, trees that looked like they had seen centuries blocking the view.

As they followed the path the slope suddenly wasn't a slope anymore. It looked like they had reached a platform which seemed to be perfectly even.

“That's kinda anticlimactic,” Fareeha said as soon as their breath had started to even out again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you enjoyed this chapter please leave kudos and a comment! It means a lot to me. Thank you for reading!
> 
> (Translations)  
> „Seid vorsichtig da draußen, Angela”. → “Be careful out there, Angela.”  
> „Werden wir, danke”. → “We will (be careful), thanks.”  
> „Hier”. → (lit.) “Here.”; (in this context) “Take this.”  
> „Pass gut drauf auf, dann passt es auf euch auf.” → “Take good care of this and it'll take good care of you.”  
> „Danke”. → “Thanks.”
> 
> If you need any help for German characters or just want to chat, feel free to shoot me a message!  
> i-was-raised-in-hell.tumblr.com


	2. Lake Rhodonite

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm posting this chapter early because I can and because why not. I hope you like it!

“What did you expect? A wall we’d have to climb up straight? Because that's the only thing worse I could think of. Maybe a huge abyss to jump over?” Angela answered, only half joking.

“That's still one hell of a hiking path.”

“Wouldn't have been as bad without the backpacks.”

“Who goes hiking without backpacks?”

Angela shrugged. “Some people only take day tours, they don't pack for staying out a week or two.”

“It's still not a beginner's path,” Fareeha said. Angela agreed with a shrug, it was a pretty discouraging stretch of way to start off on, after all. Just looking at it could make some people nope out.

“I hope the goal is actually worth this,” Fareeha said, barely keeping the sigh out of her voice.

“Sometimes the way there is the goal,” Angela said.

“Again with the ~inspiring quotes~. You found just the right job,” Fareeha grinned.

Angela bumped into her slightly. “Spending time with me isn't enough to make up for the torture that is hiking?”

“And if every step would be over molten lava, it would be worth it if it meant spending time with you.” Angela couldn't tell if Fareeha was sarcastic or not. Her face didn't look sarcastic.

“Daww, Spatz, that's so sweet of you. But, Fareeha, honey, you wouldn't survive walking on still molten lava.” Angela hooked her arm with Fareeha's again.

“I'm trying to be romantic over here,” Fareeha complained.

“I know. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“See,” Angela said, “you can be romantic without promising to hurt yourself.”

“But it shows more dedication if I'm willing to get hurt for you.”

“I'd rather you not get hurt, that would hurt me.”

“That hike hurt me, and you didn't care about that!” Fareeha exclaimed dramatically.

“It didn't  _ hurt  _ you. It  _ annoyed  _ you,” Angela smiled.

“Same thing,” Fareeha joined in on the smiling again.

“Then you should pray for a less steep path from now on,” Angela suggested.

“I don't pray, though.”

“Tough luck.”

They couldn't help but chuckle together, still standing on the edge of the steep slope they had just climbed. Their conversation had given them time to catch their breath so they turned around and continued on on their way.

“Now that I don't have to fear a heart attack it's quite nice up here.”

“You're definitely not in the prime age for heart attacks. I think you weren't in much danger,” Angela informed her girlfriend. She had to agree with Fareeha, though, the landscape was quite beautiful.

“Did you know—,” Angela began and Fareeha laughed.

“Is this another medical fun fact?”

“Kinda? A not funny fun fact?”

Fareeha shrugged. “I still wanna hear it.”

“For the longest time med students were only taught the symptoms of a heart attack in  _ cis men.  _ Not in anyone but those, though.”

“Are they that different?”

Angela answered with a question. “What do you think of when you think of a heart attack?”

Fareeha thought about that for a moment before answering. “A man dramatically sinking to his knees, clutching his chest and complaining about pain in his left arm. Or something.”

“Exactly!” Angela exclaimed, making Fareeha look a bit proud of herself. “Women, however, often don't even notice what is going on. They usually feel some pressure on the chest and can't breath correctly and their jaw hurts. It's way less dramatic and therefore most women don’t notice what is happening until it is too late,” Angela explained with that kind of voice she always used when explaining something to a patient. Thinking about it, Fareeha had noticed that kind of voice in most medical professionals.

Angela wasn't finished just yet. “But then again, med students were only taught about the cis male body in all cases. There is so many differences in symptoms of the same illness, changing with sex and even gender, and they weren't taught about any of it! Can you imagine that?”

“What? White cis men being the priority? No, how could I imagine something as unrealistic as that!” Fareeha's voice was dripping with sarcasm.

Angela hummed sadly. “At least things are changing. Slowly, yes. But they are.”

“There shouldn't need to be a reason for it to change in the first place,” Fareeha mumbled. 

“Should've kept the equality of the Vikings,” Angela agreed. “But things are what they are now. Can't change that.”

Fareeha shrugged and dropped the subject. “Are we just following this path or is there an actual chance of getting lost?”

“Right now we're just following the path. There'll probably be signs pointing to the lake, if there aren't I still have a map. So, no chance of getting lost.”

“Too bad,” Fareeha said and laughed when Angela looked at her slightly shocked.

“I thought we were going on an adventure! Sticking to the map isn't exactly an adventure,” Fareeha explained. “I've done more stupid things than leaving the trails in a forest without dangerous animals.”

“I know. I am usually there to save your ass.”

“Hey!” Fareeha complained. “It's true, but hey!”

Angela chuckled and Fareeha couldn't keep a straight face for long either. 

“Thanks.”

“Huh?”

“Thanks for saving my ass all the time.”

“Oh! You're welcome.” Angela smiled. “And thank you, Miss Amari, for always giving me a high vantage point when I need one.”

Fareeha beamed at Angela. She had so completely and utterly fallen for the young doctor, it was ridiculous. When she was sure Angela had seen her smile she turned her head away quickly and tried to find something interesting in the landscape.

Angela had the decency to not point out Fareeha's quite obvious blush, not because she was slightly blushing herself. Of course not. She just didn't want to embarrass Fareeha, she was that good of a person.

Fareeha busied herself with looking at the quite beautiful flowers growing along their way and Angela was incredibly interested in making sure she didn't trip all of the sudden.

They fell into a fast pace and a comfortable silence, just walking alongside each other and enjoying the fresh mountain air. 

The first time the trail parted they could simply follow the still intact sign, pointing them towards the usual hiking path. It was a sign made of plain wood that seemed to be made to last for years at a time without needing maintenance. If all signs were like these vandalism was the only thing that could have taken them down up until that point in time.

“Told you,” Angela said and pointed at the sign, stating ‘HIKING'. 

“Yeah, probably won't be much of an adventure, I get it.” Fareeha smiled. “Maybe it’s better that way.”

The scenery hadn't changed much. They had yet to find a point from which they could look down at the village, if there was a point like that on the path at all. It was mostly flat around here, although they were always slightly going upwards, and there always were trees in their immediate view. The path itself was rarely covered by trees which left them fully exposed to the surprisingly constantly showing sun.

“You should apply sunscreen again,” Fareeha said, looking at Angela’s skin closely.

“Yeah, you're right,” Angela sighed but took off her backpack to retrieve the sunscreen anyway. 

“It's not my fault your skin is almost transparent,” Fareeha answered at the annoyed sigh her girlfriend gave.

“It's not mine, either, though!” Angela complained, already spreading some sunscreen on her face. She held the bottle out to Fareeha wordlessly, who took the hint and helped her put the lotion on what was exposed of her back and shoulders. 

“Thank you,” Angela said and spread what was left over on her hands on Fareeha’s face. “Ana would never let me hear the end of it if I of all people let you get a sunburn.”

“It takes some time for me to get a sunburn.”

“We're going to be walking for a long time.”

Fareeha shrugged and handed the bottle back for Angela to put into her backpack. It wasn't like the sunscreen would do her any bad, after all.

“Why am I the one remembering the sunscreen anyway? Last time I checked you were the medical professional, not me,” Fareeha teased.

“We're only human, after all. Even we make mistakes.”

“Even you?”

“That happened once or twice, yes.” Angela smiled. She knew that she wasn't infallible, that didn't mean she had to like it.

She shouldered the backpack and clicked the straps shut, fishing a bottle of water out from one of the side pockets, too lazy to actually put the backpack back down, just because she had forgotten about it. 

She passed the bottle to Fareeha before even opening it. “Worse than a sunburn is dehydration.”

“Sunburn gives you cancer, though, right?” Fareeha asked but took a swing from the bottle.

“After some time, yes. But fortunately we have a cure for it, and it takes more time until it is fatal. Dehydration will kill you within about three days through organ failure. With cancer you usually have more time from the first development until your last breath.”

Fareeha nodded along. “In the long run it would be all the same, anyway.”

“Without medical attention, yes. In that case I would rather choose death by dehydration.”

“Is that less painful?”

Angela took a moment to think about that question, taking a sip from the bottle passed to her and watching the sand they walked on. “I don't believe it's without pain. Though it is a significantly shorter time of suffering than what cancer can do to you.”

“It took us a long time to find a cure for cancer, didn't it? You've made such a huge leap with biotic forms of healing.”

“If only they were as accessible to the public as they are to us,” Angela sighed.

“We can't just make biotic healing accessible to the public. Neither anything else you develop. That would mean we'd give it to our enemies. On a silver platter,” Fareeha's professionalism kicked in for the first actual time during their adventure.

“I  _ know  _ that,” Angela assured. “I just hate that people keep dying while I have a perfectly suitable cure on me.”

“I don't like them dying, either, you of all people should know that. But imagine how many more people would die if, say, Talon got their hands on biotic technology.”

Angela nodded, putting back the bottle of water. “Of course you are right. But I don't have to like it.”

“Neither of us have to. We just need to accept it.”

Angela suddenly smiled to herself. “Imagine how everyone ranked captain and higher-”

“That's a really nice way to describe my mother, Gabriel and Jack,” Fareeha interrupted, smiling.

“I know!” Angela chuckled. “But imagine their reaction if I went around, dressed as an actual angel of mercy, healing those who need it. I would never do that, but just imagine,” she was in a very weird mood that day, she noticed it herself.

“Angela?”

“Fareeha?”

“You run around the battlefield with halo and a pair of wings. You dress up like that all the time.”

Angela blinked. “Yes, because I get to decide who dies and who doesn't.  _ But  _ not with civilians.”

“I would say a fair share of civilians has seen you in all your being very extra glory,” Fareeha chuckled and hooked her arm under that of her girlfriend to ease the sting of the truth.

“I deserve to be as extra as I want.” Angela decided and pushed some hair out of her eyes.

“Of course you do,” Fareeha confirmed, pressing a quick kiss to Angela's cheek.

“Would you now please imagine their reactions? Jack would be  _ pissed. _ ” She asked again, smiling brightly.

Fareeha nodded curtly. “Jack would be, yes. Gabriel would pretend to be but secretly he'd laugh about it and my mother … that could go either way, I think. Best not try it. I wouldn't want you banned from field missions.”

“Oh I don't know, a little break from all the death, treating sparring wounds and splinters instead? That sounds like vacation to me.” There was unmistakable sarcasm in her voice.

“You're on vacation right now, and you better enjoy it,” Fareeha mumbled, feigning hurt.

“I am,” Angela assured, resting her head on Fareeha's shoulder, which quickly turned out to be very uncomfortable while walking.

Angela was on the lookout for animals, just to get a general idea of how bad the extinction really was. At least with the smaller animals it didn’t seem bad at all. The opposite, actually. She had never seen so many birds, and they were really scared of humans apparently. She had seen a few mice and even a deer just beyond the trees, at least she was quite positive that it wasn’t just shadows. She should have brought a camera.

“Do you think other species have started to come back?” 

Fareeha followed Angela’s gaze to a bird on the bigger side, a hawk maybe. “They might. But she didn’t say anything bout the birds disappearing, did she?”

“I don’t think so. But wolves have made a come-back once before, who knows. Maybe they just live far from humans now.”

“I don’t think these paths are frequented a lot, so I don’t think anyone could really tell,” Fareeha mused.

“What do we do in case of a wolf attack, though? That could be a problem.”

“You did pack your gun, didn’t you?” Fareeha asked, almost scared that, no, Angela did not pack a gun, because they were on vacation.

Angela looked at her for a moment. “Of course I did. Just not very … accessible.”

Fareeha nodded curtly. At least she didn’t leave it at home, right?

“Don’t worry, I got you covered in case of an emergency,” she promised and tightened her arm around Angela’s for a moment, as a substitute of an actual hug. 

It earned her a pearly bright smile. “I know. That’s why I do things like this with you.”

“So you are saying you wouldn’t trust anyone else in our team enough to go on vacation with them?”

“No, I would go on vacation with just about everyone in Overwatch. The difference is how on guard I would be during it.”

“You should never let your guard down, not even with me around,” sounding almost like her mother.

“I’m not letting my guard down! I  _ did _ pack my gun. I’m just slightly lowering it  because I trust you enough to always have my back when I need it, just as I always have yours,” Angela explained calmly.

“That’s … really sweet,” Fareeha admitted.

 

The path was more overgrown the further they came, and even the HIKING-signs had some moss on them when they were finally in the depths of a forest. It smelled like dirt and the decomposing leaves that fell the earlier autumns. 

Suddenly, as soon as they stepped into the actual forest, everything came to life. Bees were buzzing on the thousands of white flowers covering the sides of the small creek that was winding itself down from the mountain.

Angela let go of Fareeha’s arm to pick something that was growing just alongside the path. She came back up with a hand full of green leaves and gave some to her girlfriend. 

“Clover?” Fareeha asked and hollowed her hand to prevent any plants from dropping.

“Yes!” Angela confirmed, picking at one of them. “These are edible.” She supported her statement by biting one of the long leaves from the clover.

Fareeha watched her for a few seconds before trying it herself. It wouldn’t work as a full meal for her, but it wasn’t all bad as a snack.

“Imagine a deer peed on this,” she said, thinking again about eating plants her girlfriend picked right from the forest ground.

“Won’t kill us, I promise,” Angela smiled, popping another clover into her mouth.

“Alright then,” Fareeha said. It didn’t taste bad anyway.

She let her eyes wander, over the pink flowers joining the white ones. The clear, shallow water washing over river rocks. A few small birds flocking in the bushes on the other side of the creek. It was more peaceful than anything she had seen in a long time, maybe ever.

“What are those?” She pointed at slightly taller plants with tiny white blossoms. “Do you know them?”

“I’ll get a look at them!” Angela exclaimed. This place seemed to lock away doctor Ziegler and bring out little Angela instead. She seemed younger than she was, maybe just the age she had actually reached. They all had to grow up so fast. For the first time Fareeha really truly thought of their vacation to be a good idea.

Angela sat down the backpack to be able to walk the slightly wet dirt without sinking in up to her knees and quickly picked some of them to bring them back to Fareeha.

“Smell them!” She ordered, excited.

Fareeha blinked once in surprise, taking one of the flowers and smelling them. They smelled like grass, if anything.

“Not the petals. The leaves. Here.” Angela took another one and rubbed the green leaves between her fingers, holding the plant up for Fareeha to smell. “Do you know this smell?”

“I~ don’t think so?” She was unsure if she should. It didn’t smell unpleasant, she just didn’t recognise it.

“No, not surprising. The artificial flavor they use is a lot different than this, actually. This is woodruff.” 

“Can you eat it?” Fareeha asked.

“It’s not poisonous. But I don’t think it is eaten like clover, for example.  _ But _ -” Angela fished out the water bottle from her backpack again and ripped up the three plants she was still holding, then took the one she had given to Fareeha and put them into the bottle. She shook it some and put it back.

“Usually it’s made into simple syrup with lots of sugar and then put into sparkling wine, as far as I know. But it should make some good woodruff infused water, too. Maybe.”

“Maybe?” Fareeha smiled.

“I don’t know if it’s going to work the way I want it to. This is science!” Angela declared, shouldering her backpack again.

“Shouldn’t you write it down or something?”

“This is … non scientific science.” She said with a supporting nod.

“You’re the scientist, who am I to question you.”

“Exactly!”

They went back to walking next to each other, arms entwined. 

“Are we getting close at all?” Fareeha didn’t know how long it was supposed to take them and it didn’t really seem like they were getting anywhere. Then again it was only about noon.

They had come by a ranger’s hut, not directly, but they had seen it from afar, then taken another path further away from it.

“I don’t really feel like checking on that,” Angela admitted.

“So we’re having an adventure?”

“Not quite. Still on the paths, remember?” Angela smiled fondly. “Also, I know that we’re supposed to have about another hour of hiking, at our pace maybe one and a half to two.”

“Too bad,” Fareeha said.

But they had two weeks of exploring in front of them, there would be many opportunities to have an adventure or two.

“You know, for someone that has a life filled with danger and excitement you are very eager to find danger and excitement during a time that is meant or relaxation and calmness,” Angela said.

“I don’t know. It’s hard to break with what I know. And I really like my job, on top of that. I might just be the adventurous type.”

“Is that contagious?” Angela asked, sounding careful.

“You tell me, doc,” Fareeha laughed.

“I think it might be after long-term exposure.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“I don’t know. Two much of it might kill you.”

“But so does drinking a lot of water, and water is not a bad thing in and of itself!” Fareeha reminded.

“That, Miss Amari, is very true.”

“So I won’t have to go into quarantine for being very adventurous?”

“Not yet. You might if you become a danger to yourself and others, though.”

“That’s fair, I guess,” Fareeha agreed. “ But where would I be put, then? We don’t have a lot of options up here, I’d say.”

“I’ll find a way. You’ll get your own personal guard.”

“Oh? The huts only have two rooms, as far as I know. A main room and a bedroom,” Fareeha grinned.

“The bedroom will do just fine,” Angela shot a knowing glance up her eyelashes, acting innocent.

“So, just so I get this right. I will have to stay in the bedroom, with my own personal guard, which would be you? And you would want me to not infest you with this contagious disease called a sense of adventure?”

“Correct.”

“Might turn out to be harder than you think.”

“Oh, I’ll just have to keep you from going outside!” Angela claimed.

Fareeha grinned, looking forward. “I’ll give you some adventure without setting one foot out of the house, don’t you worry.”

Fareeha couldn’t help her smile from getting even broader as she saw Angela bite her lip.

“You better be able to live up to your promises,” she then said, voice level with trained professionalism.

“You know I always do.”

“Can’t say I’ve been disappointed yet.”

“Not planning on changing that.”

“Good,” Angela said, bumping her shoulder into Fareeha’s playfully.

They walked in smiling silence for a while, until they came upon a dark brown bridge over the creek. It had definitely seen some better days, missing some wooden planks, overgrown with what looked like moss. Should call for some balanced walking, but not be a big deal overall.

“I’ll go first,” Fareeha decided.

“Why?” Angela wanted to know. 

“Because I want to play your hero so you don’t have to drop into cold water in case this thing isn’t holding your weight combined with the backpack. Romance, Angela!” She laughed, already making her way onto the bridge.

“You are unbelievable,” Angela shook her head, but laughed as well.

Surprisingly enough the bridge held out, it did protest under the weight, but didn’t give way. When Fareeha had made it to the other side no problem Angela held onto the side and danced her way over, as well. At least that’s what it looked like Fareeha. She jumped the last space onto solid ground, stumbling slightly, a pair of arms wrapped around and caught her.

“Thank you,” Angela laughed.

“I should have dipped you right there, backpack and all,” Fareeha said, almost a little sad about the passed up opportunity.

“I’m rather thankful you didn’t,” Angela answered, getting back to her feet and out of Fareeha’s arms.

She didn’t let go of her hand, however. She got onto her tiptoes, catching a quick kiss. “You know …” She was tracing the hem of Fareeha’s collar. “You always are my hero, no matter if you’re trying or not.”

Had she looked up at her, the beaming smile on Fareeha’s face might have blinded Angela. Instead Fareeha had to nudge her head back up with her free hand to kiss her once more.

“Thank you for coming with me,” Angela said once they broke the kiss to catch their breath.

“Thank you for making me,” Fareeha shot back.

“Does that mean you’re having a good time?”

“I’m always having a good time when I’m with you.”

They broke apart, keeping their fingers entwined while making their way further down the path. They were on the side of the bushes now, even though they were still pretty much walking alongside the creek. It seemed to get narrower and slightly deeper, almost jumping distance, Fareeha guessed. For a trained person, admittedly, but it would be possible.

“Do you think there are fish her?” She watched the water as closely as possible from her position, but it was near impossible to see the ground, they were too far.

“There might. But maybe you’ll have more luck hunting for them in the lake. My guess would be that there are more in the lake than this shallow creek,” Angela mused, following her girlfriend’s gaze towards the water.

“Do you think fishing is allowed around here?”

“I don’t think there is anyone that would arrest you if you did,” she paused for a moment. “Then again there are probably reasons if fishing is forbidden.”

“The question would be whether it is for health risk reasons or because the fish are slowly being killed off by too many people fishing.”

“I could easily put together a test to see if the water is safe to consume. And there shouldn’t be too many people fishing these days,” Angela said.

Fareeha nodded. “ _ If  _ there are any fish at all.”

“I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough. That’s probably not something we could google,” Angela smiled.

“I don’t think so, no,” Fareeha answered with a smile of her own.

She let her eyes wander once more, letting go of her mission to find out about the fish. The bushes had clusters of tiny berries on them, some hadn’t developed from their flowery state at all yet. There were some blackberries twining through and underneath of the bushes she couldn’t name, but they would probably need another month or two to be edible.

“Those are elder bushes. Sambucus,” Angela informed softly.

Fareeha turned to look at her. “Do they have any medicinal uses?”

“More than I can recall, and I recall a good amount of them.”

“Like what?” Fareeha wanted to know.

“They were and probably still are used against various cold diseases, the flu, fever, rheumatism, neuralgias and even constipation. They are anti-inflammatory and have been used to treat diabetes, since the elderflowers can  stimulate the glucose metabolism, the high levels of vitamin A and antioxidants help with skin care and they have been used against allergies. Those are all broad categories so the uses for elderberries and -flowers really are near endless.”

Fareeha loved listening to Angela when she talked about something she was passionate about. Often times that meant understanding half of it, at best, but herbalism seemed easier to put into terms Fareeha could work with. Not to mention the slip ups where Angela just couldn’t think of the right words in English. Being bilingual Fareeha knew those situations herself, of course, but that didn’t make it any easier to understand her girlfriend at times. 

“Too bad they are not ripe yet,” Fareeha said.

“We might have to come back in September,” Angela smiled. 

“All this hiking for some berries? You’ll probably find some closer to home.”

“But I like ‘all this hiking’ with you!”

“It’s still a lot of work for some berries.”

Angela couldn’t argue with that. Especially since, technically, they really didn’t need the health benefits of elderberries anymore.

More light started making its way through the thick crowns of the trees as they continued walking. At the same time the creek seemed to be slightly deeper, but not much broader.  The air was still cool enough for keeping up a nice pace without breaking out into sweat, but they took their time. 

“How does lunch sound?” Angela’s melodic voice eased her out of her thoughts.

“We’ll make it to the lodge before starving, I’m sure,” Fareeha said.

“But a picnic in the forest would be really nice.”

“I guess we’ll have a picnic then. Choose a spot?”

Angela did. She seemed to have had that specific spot in mind, the blanket Fareeha had had in her backpack was placed on the soft ground quickly and she was just about to search through their packs for some picnic worthy food when Angela started wandering off. 

“Are you leaving me?” She asked playfully.

“I’m getting these strawberries,” Angela informed and continued on on her quest.

Fareeha sat down and unpacked some fruit they had taken with them for a snack. She wasn’t going to wait until Angela was done picking berries. She knew her girlfriend, she’d try to find and pick every last strawberry within a reasonable distance.

Fareeha was right, Angela did take some time. They had lots of it, of course, and she liked watching her trying not to step on any plants while still getting to all the fruit she desired.

When she came back she had a bandana filled with strawberries, which she placed down on the blanket.

“These are tiny,” Fareeha pointed out.

“They are the original strawberries around here. The bigger ones were brought here from somewhere warmer later on in history.”

Fareeha looked at the berries in front of her. They were about the size of her fingernail. Still a bit skeptical but confident Angela wouldn’t want to try and poison her she tried one. It wasn’t as sweet as she expected from a strawberry, but it was definitely a strawberry.

“You know a lot about plants,” Fareeha pointed out. Not, that it bothered—or even surprised–her, Angela made good use of a lot of her brain-space. 

“Nature has the form of medicine we can always fall back onto, if needed. At least it should have. I think everyone could benefit from knowing some of the basics. A 'nature’s first aid course’ if you will.”

“Another reason to get this planet back on track,” she took another strawberry. She looked at the backpacks longingly, then to Angela.

“Water?”

“Please.” Fareeha nodded.

Angela was just about to grab a bottle from Fareeha's pack when she remembered the bottle she had put woodruff in earlier, so she grabbed that instead. She opened it, taking a small sip before passing it over. It didn't have a strong taste at all, it was really subtle, but Angela liked it. She waited for Fareeha's opinion, patiently.

“This is nice. I like this,” Fareeha decided, taking another sip. Angela's smile was better than the water, and the water was pretty darn good.

“Oh look!” Angela’s voice was soft, almost a whisper, but excited. Fareeha turned her head to see what that was all about.

A squirrel was hanging on a tree, head down, watching them.

“Do you think it likes strawberries?” She asked, jokingly.

“I believe they are part of their diet,” Angela confirmed. She took one of the small berries and tossed it into the direction of the squirrel’s tree. 

The small animal seemed startled at first, but curious nonetheless. It watched them carefully and eventually climbed down to grab the berry. It sat there for a moment, just turning the tiny strawberry in its tiny hands, before sprinting up the tree again.

“Well it took it with him,” Fareeha pointed out. “Not the best item of food to keep for the winter.”

Angela smiled down to the strawberries, taking another one for herself.

In no time the squirrel was back to the place where it had found the treat the first time, looking slightly lost, then towards the women, accusingly. 

Angela got another berry, holding it out towards the squirrel. 

“I don’t think it’ll come that close to big scary strangers,” Fareeha chuckled.

Surprisingly, it did. Not close enough to take the berry from Angela’s hand, but there wasn’t much missing. She tossed it with perfect accuracy in front of the tiny feet, smiling in childish glee as the squirrel picked it up and only ran halfway back to the tree to eat.

After that, it didn’t come much closer; the women still shared all their berries, until there were none left. The squirrel came a few jumps closer, making sure it wouldn’t get anything else, then it sprinted back up a tree.

“That … was really cute,” Fareeha said.

“Nature and its residents are just amazing,” Angela sighed, content. “Should we get going?”

Fareeha nodded and got to her feet smoothly. “Ouch!”

“What’s the matter?” Angela sounded concerned.

Fareeha rubbed her head with one hand, looking around her feet. Then, another something hit her in the back.

This time Angela caught the movement and followed it with her eyes. She picked it up, holding it out to Fareeha. 

“Acorns?” Fareeha looked puzzled, straightening back up and holding a hand out to Angela to help her to her feet, as well. She took it, with a smile, and rose to her feet gracefully. A third acorn made it’s way down, hitting Angela this time. There was no wind, not even high up, and it wasn’t a time for acorns to just fall down, still the branches of the tree rustled.

Both women looked up to see what was happening. 

“There!” Fareeha pointed upwards, following a flash of red with her finger. “Is … it giving us food back?” She looked incredulous.

“I guess so,” Angela confirmed. “Now  _ that _ is cute.”

They made a point in picking up all the acorns they were thrown, about six or seven in total, before packing up their remaining things to finish the hiking for the day.

The path was winding on between the thinning out forest, following the water for a bit more before suddenly the creek made a sharp turn. The path suddenly became steep again, and Fareeha made an annoyed sound.

“Not this again.”

“We are hiking. In the mountains. This is to be expected,” Angela laughed, even though she really wasn’t looking forward to another painful climb like the first one. “C’mon, we can do this.”

“Of course we can. I just like to complain,” Fareeha smiled, hooking her arm under Angela’s. This climb didn’t look quite  _ as _ bad, they’d do fine. No heart attacks to come.

They even managed not to break apart this time, not smiling when they reached the top, but not wheezing either, most likely because it wasn’t such a long stretch of way this time.

Fareeha was busy looking back at what they had just climbed, when Angela already started walking again, dragging her girlfriend with her. When she turned to keep from stumbling she could see the lodge they were going to spend their time at.

The closer they got the more details she could take in. She would’ve loved a bird’s view of this place, but for a change she probably wouldn’t get one. It was still breathtaking.

The lodge wasn’t all that exciting, all made of wood and slightly smaller than Fareeha had imagined it. There was some space attached to it that probably served as a camping ground and a fire pit made the picture perfect.

The lake itself was something else. It was the clearest water she had ever seen in a natural environment, green like emeralds, even with the clear sky reflecting in it. Around the lake was a sea of flowers, red and pink, dotted by the black stones underneath. The name suddenly did make sense, just as Angela had promised earlier.

Fareeha looked at Angela excited. “The destination  _ is _ worth it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I'll try to get the next chapter up in about a week, there is more to come!
> 
> (Translation)  
> Spatz - "Sparrow" (I chose this petname for two reasons. One, my parents call each other that and I think it is really sweet. Two, I know 'Liebling' or 'Liebste' is what most people use, but I don't think I've ever heard that used by an actual German person. And I've been living in Germany all my life. So at least no one in my surroundings uses that).


	3. Do Peas Go with Fish?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I'm late and my only excuse is my mental health.

The door to the lodge wasn’t locked, but a key was sitting on the table in the main room, which Fareeha was quite thankful for. Angela pocketed it and sat down her backpack on one of the chairs, to check out the rest of the cabin. 

Fareeha followed suit, looking around the room. There were some sofas, a big table and about a dozen chairs around it. A bar that looked a lot like a kitchen corner dominated the area. Behind it was a door, the only one besides the entrance door, which wasn’t locked either.

There were six bunk beds crammed into the tiny space of the bedroom. Not exactly first class sleeping, but Fareeha figured no one that went on a hiking trip actually expected anything else. And real beds were a lot more than a thin mattress in a tent. Then again, they had both slept in way worse places before.

A bathroom with two showers was attached to the bedroom. When Fareeha entered Angela was inspecting the showers closely.

“Do you think the water is still working?”

“Depends on how they got the water here.” Angela looked at her questioningly, so she just continued. “If they used a piping system from somewhere I’m not sure if it’ll still work. But they might have a rainwater tank on the roof, then it shouldn’t be much of a problem. That is, if there is any water inside and if the water will be warm is another story.”

Angela nodded along. “Let’s hope for some kind of shower, warm or not.”

“I’ll climb up there and check later,” Fareeha promised and placed a kiss on Angela's head, earning her a smile.

There wasn’t much to be found around the lodge. Well. There were kitschy wood decorations, some long forgotten clothes and books, but nothing she would take special interest in. She had taken a bottle of water and was waiting at the door for Angela, who insisted on looking through the cabinets for whatever reason. 

There were some cans of food, which admittedly were great, matches, a lighter and even a flint necklace, which Angela put around her neck the instant she found it.

“We have matches, you know,” Fareeha laughed.

“What were you saying about adventures?”

Making fire without matches  _ was _ more exciting, Fareeha had to admit that. She was still smiling about this small victory for ‘team adventure’, when Angela walked over to the dining table. She was dragging a huge piece of paper with her, spreading it on the wooden table.

“What is that?” Fareeha wanted to know.

“It’s a map!” Angela already started studying it in detail.

Fareeha made her way over, suddenly interested in this ridiculously old map. Angela seemed very excited for it, so there had to be something more to it. Right?

She had a finger pointed at something, the pictogram let her guess it was another lodge, titled 'High Point’. The lake they were at had a red circle around it and she could make out the village at the railroad.

“This looks like a two day hike, maybe we should check it out.”

“We could, but why?” Fareeha wanted to know.

“According to this map there is an even bigger lake up there. And a waterfall,” Angela beamed at Fareeha.

“Is there a path up there?”

“There should be, I mean, there is a lodge. But this place is the only one that was advertised for vacation, so who knows.”

“That sounds like an adventure, an awful lot, if you ask me,” Fareeha said.

“It definitely isn't playing it safe.” Angela seemed to be getting second thoughts already. 

Fareeha walked around the table to stand next to Angela. “Let us take a look around. Spend some time here. Maybe we'll get bored and then we can still think about going up there.”

Angela nodded, smiling. “That's reasonable,” she paused, looking at the map for another moment. “We should check out the lake,” she said while holding out a granola bar to Fareeha. “Lunch,” she said at her girlfriend’s puzzled look.

A few minutes later Angela locked up the lodge so they could go exploring around the place without fearing for their stuff to be taken. They hadn't met a single person yet but you never could be careful enough, especially when the locals said something about people hiding in the forest.

There was a shed with a boat in it, and some fishing rods, firewood and some supplies that were probably used for cooking over a campfire. It also seemed to be the place where towels were stored, at least there were a lot of them lying around.

“You should try for those fish,” Angela pointed at the rods.

“We could make a fire for them and spend the evening outside,” Fareeha continued the thought.

Angela's nod was enthusiastic. 

“Do you know anything about fishing?” There were a lot of parts on those fishing rods upon further inspection.

“Can’t be that much of a hassle. I’ll figure it out as I go along.”

“We use ‘fake it ‘till you make it’ as a philosophy a little too often.” Angela smiled, fondly.

Fareeha shrugged. “It’s working so why change it up? It's called never touch a running system for a reason, isn't it?" She laughed and grabbed one of the fishing rods. She really didn't know anything about those, she knew more about the theory of fishing with anything but a fishing rod, but it couldn't be that hard to figure out. 

“I'm not sure not having a plan counts as a system,” Angela laughed.

“Eh, we'll be fine. Really, fishing can't be  _ that _ hard.” And if it was ... there were still some cans of food. "We'll have to get food eventually, those cans will not last us through two weeks," Fareeha said, not looking up from the rod. The line seemed fine, as far as she could tell it wasn't damaged in any way.

Angela nodded. She had thought about that, too. "If we run out of food here we might have to recover some from the other lodges. There should be more around, according to the map."

"We could hike from lodge to lodge." Fareeha suggested. It wasn't her cup of tea to stay in one place too long, doing nothing but swimming and eating, anyway.

"You're really pushing this adventure thing," Angela said, no malice in her voice.

"I just need to do something!" Fareeha complained. "If I wanted to sit on my arse all day I'd get an office job."

"With how little food we have you can't do that anyway."

"Abandoned safehouses have better stuff than this place," Fareeha muttered.

"We have abandoned safehouses?"

"I don't know. But other people have."

"How do you know about other people's-"

"Don't tell me you've never stumbled into one of those looking for shelter."

Angela shook her head slightly. "Not really."

"You're usually accompanied by some agents, maybe that's why," Fareeha mused.

"You always have at least one person with you, as well!"

"Angela," she began, "I have lost people on missions. It rarely happens but sometimes you end up on your own before pickup is there, and you better get your butt into a sheltered place then. Sometimes that place belonged to the enemies."

Angela pulled her eyebrows together. "It's not my first week on the job." 

"I'm sorry," Fareeha said, her features softening. "I just..."

"It's different, I know that. I'm sorry."

Fareeha set down the fishing rod as Angela made a move to hug her. 

"Let's not talk about work?" Angela suggested, resting her head on Fareeha's shoulder.

Fareeha nodded. "Let's try that."

How successful they'd be was another thing, but they sure as hell could try.

"Do you want to join me on the boat?" She offered, voice soft, still hugging her girlfriend tightly.

"You really want to take the boat out?"

"I could stay at the catwalk" Fareeha said. "Or I could take the boat out and get a new perspective." 

Angela pulled her head back to look at Fareeha. "We should make sure it doesn't have any holes. Sinking wouldn't be so nice," she smiled.

"Let's go, then."

Together they pulled the small wooden boat from the shed and inspected it. It seemed fine on the first and even second glance, so they pulled it further into the water. Fareeha grabbed a rope from inside the boat and fastened the boat to the wooden catwalk. 

"We'll wait a few minutes, see how it's holding up then," she decided and Angela nodded. That sounded like a plan she could live with.

"C'mon," she said, already walking again. "Let's see if we can prepare the fire."

Fareeha followed close behind her. They grabbed some firewood from the shed and stacked it inside the ring of stones just at the small beach. 

Angela put her hands on her hips, looking at their work happily and blowing some hair out of her eyes. She turned back to Fareeha. "Should we get that metal stuff?"

"How else are we supposed to prepare the fish?" Angela asked, smiling.

"We could put them on sticks and hold them over the fire until they're done," Fareeha suggested, only half joking.

"Let's ... not." Angela smiled fondly. "Maybe another time," she offered before Fareeha could get another word in.

"I guess we have a lot of time to try different techniques."

"Exactly."

They walked back slowly, taking their time. The sun was still high, so they didn't' have to fear dying on the lake because they couldn't see what they were doing in the dark. They didn't need daylight to make a fire.

Figuring out how the metal pieces fit together was surprisingly easy, maybe even less work than stacking of the firewood in a convenient way.

"Is this what vacation used to be like for everyone?" Fareeha asked.

Angela wasn't sure whether it was an answer for her or if it was rhetorical, but she decided to add her two cents anyway. "I think first this was everyday life and then it was more of a preference thing. Some people would want to be served on vacation, other would want the danger of being attacked by a bear."

Fareeha nodded. "Makes sense." She looked at the fire-to-be. "Would you want vacation like that? In a hotel somewhere at the ocean?"

"It might be nice," Angela said.

"But also reeeeaaally boring," Fareeha answered.

"You might not be able to understand this, but some people like boring and not adventurous at all vacation," Angela laughed.

"I don't think that is true. I think they think that they don't want adventures because they've never had them. Some sense of adventure is human! People are attracted to danger."

"Maybe. Maybe that'S just a phenomena in our line of work, who knows."

Fareeha made a sound that was neither agreeing nor objecting, so Angela didn't say anything else about it.

"The boat still didn't sink so I believe we're good to go," Fareeha said, looking at the boat happily bumping against the catwalk now and again.

"Let's grab some fishing rods, then!" Angela was more excited than she would've thought. It wasn't more than sitting around waiting for a fish to be dumb enough to bite something that looked like food that was stuck to something sharp.

"You want to try your luck, as well?" Fareeha asked, slightly surprised, as they made their way back to the shed again.

"Heightens the chances of having good dinner, right?"

"If it isn't, y'know, poisonous.You should make that test," Fareeha remembered their earlier conversation about fishing.

Angela stopped in her tracks. "I almost forgot about that! Okay. You take your chances and go fishing, I'll see if I can figure out a test so we don't accidentally kill ourselves out here."

"There are a lot of ways to accidentally kill oneself out here," Fareeha said.

"But dying some way that could have definitely been prevented is a little sad."

"Point taken," Fareeha said and grabbed two of the fishing rods. Angela helped her carry the bucket and some things that looked like they belonged to the fishing gear to the boat and loosened the knot, throwing the rope into the boat.

"Be careful, have fun!"

"I'll try!" Fareeha promised and sat down to start rowing.

Angela waved once and turned to go to the lodge. She was determined to have the test results before Fareeha came back with their dinner. 

 

As it turned out fishing was really boring and patching together a test to figure out if water is poisonous wasn't the easiest task in the middle of a forest. But both of them finished their task, only complaining to themselves a bit.

Angela took longer than she had anticipated, even with the lack of tools she should have been faster than this. She guessed it was the distraction of watching Fareeha in the tiny boat. The landscape didn't help either.

The thousands of flowers truly looked like water in the slight breeze, entrancing her once or twice. She caught herself zoning out far more than she was used to, whatever the reason for that may be.

Maybe it was the mountain air; she had never experienced such clean air. She didn't have any evidence to back this up, but she would have sworn that the air was even better than on the few opportunities she had been on the sea.

It might have been the best thing about this whole vacation so far.

“So, what’s the verdict?” Fareeha stood in the boat, keeping her balance perfectly, fastening the rope securely before placing the bucket on the wooden planks next to Angela’s feet.

Angela looked at the bucket, curiously, and sure enough there were some fish in the bloody water. They had a good size and certainly would be enough to make them full and happy.

“The water’s good.” She looked at the fish some more. “Maybe you shouldn’t have killed them. In case the water wasn’t okay, y’know.”

“I figured it’d be fine.”

“Why’s that?” Angela wanted to know, holding a hand out to help Fareeha keep her balance.

Once on safe ground Fareeha shrugged. “They looked really lively. They wouldn’t if there was real danger from the water, would they?”

“They might if they had time to mutate and get used to the new, very much deadly to humans, conditions,” Angela objected, and took the bucket by the handle.

”Do you know how to prepare these?”

Fareeha joined Angela in looking at the bucket. “Slit them open, remove their intestines and put them over the fire?” Fareeha offered as a solution.

“What about their scales?” Angela wanted to know.

“I think these aren’t that much of a problem? I’ll try to take them off as much as possible anyway,” she promised.

Angela smiled and they made their way towards the lodge, where Fareeha used a hunting knife she had brought from home to start preparing the fish. Angela sat at the counter for a moment before getting back up and looking through the cabinets once more. 

“What do you think goes with fish?” Angela asked, leaning up onto her tiptoes to make sure she could look at all the cans.

“Canned peaches? No,” Fareeha said, smiling at the can her girlfriend was currently holding.

“How about…” Angela made a frustrated noise, her fingertips barely touching the side of another can. She put down the can she was holding, pulling her eyebrows together annoyed and climbing up onto the counter.

“You know I’d get that for you if you asked,” Fareeha said, still watching her smiling.

“I’ve got this,” Angela insisted, sliding back down, holding the can in one hand. “See?”

“Proud of you,” Fareeha said, turning back to her own task.

“Thanks. So. How about peas and baby carrots?”

“That should work, I guess. I don’t think those go on the grill, though.”

Angela was on that already. She dug through the lower cabinets and came back up with a victorious ‘aha!’ presenting a small pot. 

“Does that belong to the stuff outside?”

“I believe so! It’s the same colour and extremely heavy, soo…”

“The witch found herself her cauldron,” Fareeha said, grinning at her.

“Did you just call me a witch?”

“What if?”

“I don’t know. Please don’t burn me.”

“I would never,” Fareeha promised. “Your secret is in no danger with me.”

“That’s too nice of you,” Angela said, blinking up at Fareeha twice, smiling sweetly.

Fareeha waved the knife around. “I’d hug you but I don’t think you want that right now.”

“I really don’t,” Angela agreed, looking at the scales and blood clinging to Fareeha’s hands. She had experience with far worse things on her hands, that’s just part of her job. But that didn’t mean she wanted the non edible dead fish on her if she could prevent it.

“Later,” Angela promised, kissing her on the cheek quickly before sitting across from where she was standing. Fareeha smiled down at her work. Angela knew the smile was meant for her, why would she smile at the fish, right? She looked at the very cauldron-esque pot, thinking. “It could be rather difficult to make both things at once.”

“What do you mean?” Fareeha wanted to know, tossing some intestines back into the bucket, placing the prepared fish-halfs on a plate she had found in one of the cabinets.

“There is space for the grill  _ or  _ the pot, but not both of them at once.”

Fareeha placed her hands on the counter, joining Angela in staring at the iron pot. “We should make the fish first.”

“Yeah,” Angela agreed, “the peas just need heating up.”

"I'm almost done here. You could go outside and try to ignite a fire?" Fareeha suggested, motioning towards the door with the knife she was still holding. It was painfully obvious how much Fareeha needed something she could use as a weapon to feel safe, even this far from any other people. Angela didn't blame her, though.

She nodded and got up from her high chair once more. "Don't take too long or the fire will be all burned down," she smiled and pushed the chair closer to the counter to line up with the others.

With the mini-cauldron in on hand and the can of peas and carrots in the cauldron Angela walked towards the fire pit slowly, enjoying the now slowly setting sun. It was truly beautiful, the mountains cast in deep orange, the same light setting the forest ablaze. They would have to walk further south-west to reach the next lodge on the trail and southwards for the other, apparently bigger lake. 

Angela sat the cauldron down into the grass next to the fire pit and kneeled down, taking off the flint she wore around her neck. She was determined to do this the not so easy way, if only to be proud of herself.

It was quite easy to get sparks off of the stone so was getting the dry kindle to burn. The actual challenge was convincing the bigger pieces of firewood to catch on fire as well.

It took a little effort but a small burn on her finger later the fire was burning happily, definitely enough to get their food well done. 

She sat back on her feet and looked at her burned finger, sighing in annoyance. She debated getting up to get some cooling gel, but it was only a very small and light burn, so it wouldn't be much of a problem. She was quite certain it wouldn't get inflamed. She'd probably be better in a few hours already.

"Nice work!" Fareeha called from the door, locking it and joining Angela at the fire.

"Thank you!" Angela rose to her feet and together they moved the metal frame with the already in place hanging grill over the flames. 

"Do we just put it on there or should we get some tinfoil or something?" Fareeha asked, looking between the fish on the platter she had brought and the fire.

"I don't recall seeing any tin foil. Besides, it didn't kill people three hundred years ago, so we should be fine putting them onto the grill just like they are."

Fareeha shrugged in agreement and started placing the three middle sized fish-six halfs in total-over the heat.

"These are not going to be the best seasoned food you've ever had," there was nothing that could be used as seasoning in that hut at all. Nothing.

"Fish is good on it's own anyway. I guess."

"It's calories, that's the most important thing in survival. Besides water, of course."

"You're right, it is. But we are not in an 'eat raw meat or die' kind of survival situation. We are allowed to expect something from our food." 

They moved to sit on the tree trunks that were laying around the firepit, back to the lake, and watched the seemingly burning forest they had come through only a few hours before.

Angela shifted to sit closer to Fareeha and leaned her head on the other woman’s shoulder. Fareeha smiled and tilted her head to rest on the pillow of blonde locks, falling openly around Angela’s face.

“I still like sunsets over the sea better,” she whispered, well aware that it wouldn’t help the mood.

“Hush,” Angela said with no malice at all.

“Maybe it would be prettier somewhere else in the mountains?”

“I think this is really pretty.”

“I’m just saying that there might be another really pretty place.”

Angela smiled. “And I said hush.” She hugged her arms closer around herself; it might get a lot colder after the sun was gone completely, it wouldn’t surprise either of them.

“Y’know,” Angela began.

“I thought you said hush.” Fareeha giggled.

Angela swayed slightly to show her playful disapproval of Fareeha interrupting her. “That was for you not for me.”

“Ah, alright, excuse me doctor.”

“Yes. What was I going to say?”

“I don’t know, you didn’t tell me.”

“Because you didn’t let me,” she complained with a sigh.

“You’ll remember it later if it was important,” Fareeha promised.

“Hopefully,” she sighed again, deeper this time, almost making herself laugh.

She shifted her gaze from the forest towards the sizzling fish over the fire. The wasn't fully convinced this was the right way to prepare fish but she didn't know any better so it would do.

Fareeha pulled her closer by snaking an arm around her waist and Angela shifted again to look up at Fareeha, facing a bright smile. She leaned upwards to connect their lips firmly before resting her head back down. 

“Do you remember yet?”

“Huh?” Angela asked.

“What you wanted to say. Do you remember it yet?”

Angela blinked twice. “No.” She pulled her hair behind her ear. “But,” she picked her sentence back up, “it might have had something to do with me being okay with taking a hike to another lodge.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah. We probably won't come up here again so we might as well go exploring a little.”

Fareeha smiled. “I would really like that.”

“I just want to see that waterfall,” Angela admitted.

“So you want to go all the way up to the high point lodge?” That truly surprised Fareeha. 

Angela shrugged one shoulder. “Maybe? Not in a single hike but we could probably make it there. Don't you think?”

“Oh I know we could! We just need to pack the cans and we're good.”

“We wouldn’t even need the cans.”

“You’d rather hunt than take some canned food?” Fareeha was genuinely confused at that.

“The other lodges probably have cans of their own,” Angela pointed out. It surprised her that Fareeha was actually under the impression that Angela would prefer killing over cans, but she did sound really stunned.

“Oh,” Fareeha said, “maybe. But what if not?”

“We’ll manage. Also, there is mainly carrots and fruit in these cans. I didn’t see a lot of meat.”

“So we can basically just go into the forest and pick some dandelion and clover and have a salad.”

“That could be a nice meal, actually,” Angela said, smiling.

There were a few moments of silence between them. “Not twelve days in a row, it wouldn't.”

“You can have the sugared fruit if that changes anything,” Angela smiled.

“I’d rather go hunting, thank you very much,” Fareeha decided.

“You don’t even have a rifle here.”

“I’ll manage just fine,” Fareeha said, “My aim with a handgun isn’t that awful.”

Angela nodded, barely moving her head. “I know, it’ll be good enough for non-moving deer, I guess.”

“Hey!” Fareeha complained, chuckling at the small laugh shaking Angela against her shoulder.

 

The silence that settled between them was comfortable, the absence of voices made room for the sounds of nature. The birds were slowly going to sleep as darkness set, making the soft sounds of water moving against sand in tiny waves noticeable even with the cracking of the fire.

Fareeha took the fish off the grill, pulling it onto plates swiftly and without burning herself, miraculously. Angela used a piece of cloth that might have been a shirt once to exchange the burning hot metal grill for the pot and took the open can Fareeha presented to her.

There hadn’t been a canopener anywhere around so Fareeha used her beloved hunting knife instead, ripping open the lid with little effort. 

Angela hung the pot closer to the flames and it took only a few minutes before hot peas and carrots joined the fish on the plain white plates.

“Lemon would be great right about now,” Angela sighed and Fareeha shrugged in agreement.

“ _ You _ wanted to come here. You knew this wasn’t going to be gourmet food 24/7,” she reminded.

“I  _ know _ . Let me complain for once,” Angela demanded, smiling, holding a fork out to Fareeha.

“For once?” Fareeha raised an eyebrow and took the fork offered to her. “Thanks.”

“Hush.”

“Again?”

“Yes.” Angela was careful not to burn her mouth, but quick to try the meal anyway. Fareeha watched her curiously. If Angela decided it was edible she’d try it herself. No point in both of them suffering.

When Angela was getting another bite Fareeha deemed it safe to try it herself. She was used to fish being really salty, but this really wasn’t. It could definitely use some lemon, yes, but it was delicious nonetheless.

“I could get used to this,” Fareeha decided.

“Time to tell Jack we’re not coming back?”

“Yeah, we’ll just live in the mountains instead. Make friends with a grizzly.”

Angela snorted a laugh. “We could convince Jack to start trading, traveling with a donkey.”

“I think it was a mule,” Fareeha said.

“All the same to me,” Angela shrugged, taking another bite.

“I can’t believe you got that reference.”

“And I can’t believe you know that it’s a mule, not a donkey.”

“Fair,” Fareeha decided.

“So,” Angela began, “how about that shower?”

“I… I didn’t check.”

“We could just turn on the shower and see?” Angela mused.

“But what it there is dead animals in the water tank? Do you really want to shower with that water?”

Angela’s eyes went wide for a moment. She hadn’t thought about that one yet. “Tomorrow will be fine for a shower,” she decided.

“Are we going to stay here then?” Fareeha wanted to know.

“We can decide on which lodge we’re going to go to tomorrow, after I got that shower and some sleep.”

“Are you saying you can’t think dirty and tired?”

“I think I demonstrated that I can plenty of times,” Angela huffed.

“But you are saying that we’re not going to stay here?” Fareeha asked, hopeful.

Angela looked at her for a long moment. “I am.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you didn't get the reference, it's about 'The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams', one of his human friends is 'Mad Jack' a trader who travels with his mule 'Number Seven'.
> 
> Thank you for reading, I hope it wasn't as bad as I think it is.


	4. Adventure?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just take it. I know it has been ages and honestly, thank my political science teacher for giving such a boring class.

Angela wasn't sure if the sun was up already when she first awoke. Her face was nestled into Fareeha's hair—it was almost as good as one of those fancy sleeping masks. Also she didn't make the effort of opening her eyes, she wouldn't get up yet, anyway. Judging by Fareeha's deep and even breath the younger woman was still fast asleep.

Angela sighed and snuggled closer to the warmth of Fareeha's neck, tightening her arm around the other's middle.

Unfortunately it was one of  _ those  _ mornings. One of those mornings that it was made impossible to go back to sleep. One of those mornings, where her thoughts were racing each other. One of those mornings where she was restless and had to get up and do something, or else she'd go insane.

As careful as could be Angela detangled herself from Fareeha and stood up slowly, not to dip the mattress. The sun was already up indeed, but it still looked quite early. 

She picked up a pair of tracking pants she had discarded of during the night, as she grew too hot, and put them back on. 

The door was annoyingly noisy but she did her best at moving as ninja-like as possible. Speaking of ninjas, while she was awake she could see if she could get the water-situation figured out. 

She checked her phone on the kitchen table, 7:46. That was a reasonable time to get up anyway.

Her hiking boots were exactly where they had left them the previous evening, but then again, where would they have gone. She made sure to tie them securely, no need in slipping when she was going to climb onto the roof.

The key was sitting on the shelf next to the door and she decided against taking it with her. Only unlocking the door and slipping out swiftly before pulling it shut.

_ Now about that roof _ , she thought and began circling the lodge. At first all she saw was windows and walls, but when she reached the back, the side facing that lake, found a rusty but sturdy looking ladder. It was hanging from the roof, probably screwed in up there and it went just slightly farther down than to her chest.

“Great. Physical activity in the morning is good for you,” she sighed and jumped slightly to reach the third step. She pulled herself up a step and another one until she could stand on the lower step, and almost reached the top already. Climbing up was much easier with the support of her feet and Angela was soon standing on the flat part of the roof. 

Much to her delight there was a big square tank sitting there, a promising look to it. Not much of it was showing, it was partially built into the house (Angela's best guess was that gravity was getting the rain water inside that way) but it didn't look empty. Upon closer inspection Angela was fairly certain that the water was fit for showering and wouldn't burn their skin off.

There was a bright red valve which she turned into the direction that read ‘open’. It gave some resistance, which wasn’t surprising at all, but it was a quick job.

“That was painless,” she mumbled to herself, already walking back towards the ladder. Getting back down was easier than getting up, but then again you always got back down somehow. It might kill you, but you'd be back down certainly.

As she jumped down into the still wet grass she contemplated taking a shower right then and there, but she’d better wait for Fareeha. 

Saving water was a big concern of hers. Saving the world and all that.

Instead she sat at the burned out fire, watching the lake. It looked unmoved, like glass at the first glance. Upon the second glance it  _ was _ moving, indeed. Small waves were visible at the very edges, making no sounds this time around. They were drowned out by the birds already awake, singing their songs.

There was no wind rustling the trees, not enough to make a sound. Angela spotted a handful of deer at the treeline, raising their heads at her in curiosity once or twice, giving Angela a long look, before going back to their breakfast.

Breakfast sounded great.

Angela stretched her arms above her head and rubbed the last bit of sleep out of her eyes, scanning the mountains beyond the lake. She could make use of the time she had and plan a route they could take from here on. 

Or she could try to make some breakfast. On a second thought, peaches and granola bars, maybe some sugared pears would  _ probably  _ be the only thing somewhat suitable for breakfast, so why bother.

After just a few more heartbeats Angela got back to her feet, pushing some hair behind her ear and strolling back in the general direction of the lodge. 

This time she opened the door wide and fastened the small hook in its back to the wall of the lodge, so the heavy door wouldn't slam shut. The added daylight made the big room look friendly and like a good place to spend retirement—if someone was into mountains and isolation. 

The only thing missing was a toilet that wasn't a hole in the ground 200 feet from the main house and coffee. Maybe if a reliable supply line was established this place could become a vacation spot again. Then again, vacation was a rare luxury and who would be able to provide a reliable source for supplies, anyway? Maybe one day in the distant future.

Angela pulled out one of the bar stools and pulled the tremendously huge map to lay in front of her seat. Giving it a long thought she grabbed her tablet from her backpack, placing it on the counter as well.

She would consult with Fareeha which one to take.

She slid onto the seat and unlocked the tablet to pull up the map she had used to mark their first hike. It was a rather outdated map, the latest one that was edited though. When the tourists stopped coming they stopped updating the maps, as well.

“Here's to hoping nature didn't do any major modifications to itself yet,” Angela mumbled and zoomed in on one of the trails around there current location. Its destination was called  _ Pine’s Slope Lodge _ . Creativity apparently wasn't the locals’ strong suit. Then again, choosing descriptive names for places made it easier for people that knew the area to remember what they're called.

Angela decided to go with that one as an explanation and triple-tapped the screen—her usual shortcut for switching maps into a three dimensional view. 

Huh. Nothing.

She tapped again; no change in the map at all. The menu options weren't much help either. Not until she opened the general information section.

There simply hadn't been an accurate three dimensional view to maps when this one was last updated. It made sense in a way — the maps being just as abandoned as the area, but this version was older than Angela herself!

She huffed annoyed but quickly chose a drawing tool to mark the possibly dangerous areas and parts to avoid altogether. 

She found herself just as concentrated on planning their hike as she usually was on her research, enough so that she didn't even notice the heavy door swinging open.

A warm hand on her shoulder and a kiss on the top of her head had her humming, finishing with another circle before smiling up at Fareeha. 

“Good morning,” she said, placing down the tablet to get a real kiss from her girlfriend.

“You're up early,” Fareeha pointed out and hugged her from behind, placing her chin on Angela's shoulder to look at her work.

“I'm always up early,” she pointed out and picked the tablet back up to show Fareeha what she had planned.

She had been finished for some time, but had taken the spare time she had to plan everything till the last bit, to prevent any surprises.

“Yes you are,” Fareeha said, looking over the map, “What trail do you want to take first?” The map looked like a modern art painting, colorful lines and circles everywhere, some crossing each other, some so far from one another there must have been days between them.

“I thought we could go up here,” she pointed at a bright green line, winding through the forest towards  _ Pine's Slope Lodge. _

“Do you have any pictures from there?”

“I don’t think so. But I guess there will be a slope.”

“And lots of pines?” Fareeha offered, sounding amused.

“No~,” Angela dragged out the vowel. “Why would there be pines at  _ Pine’s Slope Lodge _ ?”

Fareeha was shaken by the laughter, Angela’s shoulders moving with it. She lifted her head up off her girlfriend’s shoulder and gave her space to turn around in her embrace. 

The high bar stool had Angela on direct eye level with Fareeha, who had sifted her hands to rest on Angela’s hips, standing between her knees.

“How would you feel about taking a shower?” Angela walked her fingers up Fareeha’s left arm, watching her fingers closely until she rested her hand on the other’s shoulder, smiling.

“I’ll see if I can get the water running.”

“Don’t worry about the water.”

“Angela, believe it or not. We need water to shower,” Fareeha said slowly, as if she was talking to a particularly dense child.

“I fixed it while you were still getting your beauty sleep.”

“Me? Needing beauty sleep? I’m beautiful enough on my own,” Fareeha grinned. “How’d you fix the water?”

“There wasn’t much to fix, actually. There should be enough water for showering and the valve was easy enough to open.”

“You are doing all the work while you’re on vacation! That doesn’t seem fair.”

“ _ We _ are on vacation  _ together _ . You deserve to have some time off just as much as I do.”

“You are not getting any time off if you keep working while I’m asleep, though.”

“Climbing on a roof and drawing on a map isn’t the kind of work that stresses me out,” Angela promised.

“But-”

“You are  _ fine _ . I was awake anyway. Don’t worry about it.” Angela placed her hands on Fareeha’s cheeks and looked at her until the guilt melted away in her eyes. It made space for adoration and pure, unconditional love and Angela couldn’t help but kiss her.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Angela smiled and kept her hands where they were.

 

"So what about the waterfall you wanted to see at... what was it called?" Fareeha asked, as she wrapped a towel around her head. She flipped her head up and had to hold onto the wall for a second, to not stumble with the quick change of position.

"High Point." Angela shrugged. "We have plenty of time, and Pine's Slope is closer, I guess. High Point is an actual journey and I thought we should do some day hikes and eventually we'll maybe end up close enough so that we won't accidentally die."

"So ... no adventure," Fareeha concluded and Angela hit her shoulder playfully, as she wet her toothbrush.

"We'll have small adventures. Day adventures. And there should be more than one of them!"

"I don't think we have the same opinion on what 'adventure' means," Fareeha grabbed her own toothbrush.

"And that's news to you?" Angela smiled, mumbling slightly around her mouth full of toothpaste.

"Not really," Fareeha admitted and started brushing her teeth.

They had stuck with about the same outfit as the earlier day; tank top and pants that would let them climb if they had to. Their shoes were still in their space next to the door, so were the backpacks. Living out of packs was something they were both very used to, having so much space to cross to get to them wasn't. Not something she  _ couldn't  _ get used to, though, Angela decided.

Angela swished some water around in her mouth and cleaned off the brush before she spoke again. "You know, with all your talk about adventures you'll jinx us eventually."

"We have that witchcraft thingy though," Fareeha said, spitting into the sink.

"I thought you don't believe in that kind of thing."

"I thought you do," Fareeha shot back.

Angela shrugged again. "Yes, I do. But that doesn't mean that you can't jinx us."

"We're professionals at surviving, aren't we?" Fareeha smiled.

"I mean ... kinda. But I, personally, wasn't trained in getting lost in the mountains."

"Isn't Switzerland like, all mountains? And you've never been there?"

"I do know how to navigate around the mountains, yes. But that doesn't mean I'm keen on getting lost around here. What if something serious happens? I don't think that woman in the village will look for us."

"There's a lot of people that will, though." Fareeha was finished as well. She watched Angela watching her in the mirror.

"They don't expect us back for two weeks."

"I was told four times by three people to send a text at least every three days. I think we'll be fine. Seriously, Angela. How do I get you to stop worrying so much?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "Maybe if I get used to being around so much nature and so little people again, it'll be okay."

"You trust me, correct?"

"Of course!" Fareeha knew that, of course.

"And I trust you to always have my back. And even if you are in a position where you cannot help me, I know that you are doing your best."

"Yeah. You are right. I just don't want anything to happen to you. Or us. To anyone."

Fareeha raised an eyebrow, facing Angela. "Why would something happen to us?"

"The pouch ... do you think she gave that to us for no reason at all?"

"I think that she gives those to everyone that comes by her house. I think people around here are just like that. Don't you?"

"I don't know. Yeah. Maybe." Angela admitted. She knew that she worried too much. She really did. But that didn't help at all. Sometimes she just felt like something would go wrong. But maybe she was just tricking herself into thinking that. Who knew. All she really knew was that she didn't like situations where she couldn’t control everything.

Instead of saying another word about it she hugged Fareeha, sighing into her shoulder and smiling up eventually. 

"Do you want to leave today?" Fareeha asked, petting Angela's head absentmindedly.

"Yes?"

"Do you want to take a walk by the lake before we leave?"

"If you'll join me," she said, burying her head into Fareeha's shoulder again.

"Of course. I want to find some if those stones!" Her voice was enthusiastic and it made Angela smile.

"They’re rare around here."

"But the lake is called after it."

"Because of the flowers. They are red. Like rhodonite crystals."

"That's stupid."

"It's not. People do that with lots of things."

Fareeha huffed. "But you said there have been findings around here. Just yesterday. Didn't you?"

"There have been, indeed," Angela confirmed, still not looking up. She liked hugging Fareeha. Maybe they could just hug for another hour.

"You are very touchy today."

"I know," Angela said. “You being calm calms me.”

“So nothing to worry about?”

“Nothing to worry about,” Angela assured and sighed into Fareeha’s shoulder again.

They stood in the dim bathroom for another minute, Fareeha counted Angela’s breaths to get an idea if she really was as okay as she claimed to be. Angela was the type of person that had very subtle signs of being upset, quick breathing was one of them. You could also hear it in her voice, sometimes. It was more difficult to notice when she wasn’t talking. 

When she reached 18 Angela moved again, away from her this time. 18 was just fine for about a minute.

 

If there was one thing Angela didn't like about hiking it was the thick socks she had to wear in her boots. Sure, she had enough possibilities to treat blisters, even out here. It had been a long time since blisters really had been a problem. But not getting them in the first place was still kinda better than having to walk around in pain for some time, because she couldn't sit down while hiking.

Fareeha didn't say anything about minding it but she guessed that no one actually liked it.

They left the backpacks where they were and locked the front door once more. 

"We'll have to remember to put the key back on the table before we leave," Angela said as she stuffed said key into the pocket of her pants.

Fareeha nodded and turned to look back at the door. "I doubt anyone will need it, though."

"Maybe we will. And as long as it's here we can't lose it," Angela pointed out. "And maybe there is someone else that likes hiking who will come here."

"Twenty years from now?" Fareeha smiled and Angela shrugged.

"Who knows. There probably isn't a spare key for any of these doors."

Angela hooked her arm under Fareeha's and they made their way to the lake slowly. They had all the time they wanted to take after all. They were walking in the direction they had come from the day before, they had seen the other direction already after all. And there wasn't a single trace of rhodonite there.

"Where do we go later?"

Angela looked around and pointed towards the tree line. "The trail starts there, by the small opening I suppose."

Fareeha followed her gaze and nodded. Looking closer at the tree line there were a good handful of those small openings. If those were all the beginnings of paths then they at least had a lot of places to go to if they got bored of something.

"I wanted to ask you," Angela began and looked up to Fareeha, "Should we take the old map with us?"

"You have the map on your tablet."

"But paper doesn't malfunction," Angela pointed out, looking back at the lake. 

They were walking alongside the sand that was lining the water all the way around, as far as she could tell. At least where there weren't trees and bushes lining the water directly. Angela wondered where the stoned would be, if they found any at all.

"There is lots of ways for paper to 'malfunction'. Rain, lots of wind, a pair of strong hands," Fareeha smiled lopsided at Angela for a moment.

"So can electronics."

"The map doesn't weigh a ton. I don't see a reason not to take it as backup." Fareeha shrugged.

"I'll pack it when we get back. Remind me if I forget?" Angel asked.

"Sure," Fareeha assured. "Now, where are those stones?"

"Maybe we should check over there." Angela pointed away from the water. There were some big rocks that stuck out of the ground and loose stones lying around in between them.

"Yeah, I doubt they're buried here," Fareeha laughed.

"And if they were, would you dig for them?"

"I might!"

"I don't think they are, though," Angela said, smiling fondly.

"Let's go, I want rhodonite!" Fareeha exclaimed and pulled Angela in the direction she had pointed at earlier.

It was still close to the water, so they could have walked the way they were walking anyway and then take a sharp turn, but going straight towards it was an option, too. Angela laughed.

Fareeha had let go of Angela's arm to jump and climb onto the rocks. She seemed to think that the high point would give her a better chance of finding what she was looking for. That's just a habit, probably.

Angela stayed on the grassy ground instead. Her neck began to hurt from looking down after some time, but she was determined to find some rhodonite for Fareeha.

"What do the stones even look like?" Fareeha asked after some time.

"Maybe you should have asked that earlier," Angela laughed. "The crystals are super red, you should be able to spot them immediately. The stones are light pink and black when they are tumbled, the raw stones ... not so much."

"That's ... I'll see," Fareeha said, making another jump.

Angela watched her, smiling. She wasn't the only one that was like a child sometimes.

When she looked back down her smile brightened. "Fareeha!" she called. She bent down and picked up a small stone, it had maybe four centimetres in diameter.

A small thumping noise announced Fareeha’s arrival right next to her and Angela looked up, holding out the stone to her girlfriend.

Fareeha took the stone and inspected it. “This is one?”

“99% on that,” Angela confirmed.

“That’s … kinda disappointing,” Fareeha admitted. She turned the stone over in her hands, inspecting it closely. It looked kinda grey and not at all like it was worth anything.

“We’ll take it home and I’ll show you how pretty these can be,” Angela promised and took the stone back to put it into her pocket. “Now that you know what you’re looking for you could find one for me, right?” She smiled and Fareeha was already back up on the stones.

“Of course I’ll find you one!” The amusement was obvious in her voice as she returned back to where she had left off, staring at the ground closely.

Angela rubbed the back of her neck but continued on looking for stones. Maybe it was a good thing that they weren’t as common as the flowers, or they’d have to carry a lot more weight than they already were dragging around with them in their packs.

Angela had given up hope of finding another one, they had been looking for almost fifteen minutes and she wanted nothing more than some coffee. Good coffee. She was about to tell Fareeha as much when she suddenly jumped down next to her, holding out a stone.

“Yes,” Angela confirmed, smiling fondly at Fareeha’s glee. 

“I didn’t think you’d be into geology so much,” Angela said.

“I just like pretty things, alright?” Fareeha said, fake-pouting, and pocketed the stone. “What now?”

“Go back and have sugared peaches and granola for breakfast?” Angela suggested.

“Sounds super healthy.”

“I’ll pick you some salad, if you’d like that better.”

“Nah, I’m good,” Fareeha laughed and went back to hooking their arms.

“Then why are you complaining? Don't you like granola?” Angela put so much old-lady-concern into her voice that she almost cracked herself up.

“No mum, I don't mind granola,” Fareeha answered, pitching her voice up.

“Good. Good. Would you like water with your granola?”

“Is there another choice?”

“Let me think…” Angela tapped a finger against her chin in a theatrical thinking motion. “There would be water for your granola.”

“I'll take the water.”

“Water and granola it is, then.”

“Can you stop saying the granola now?” Fareeha asked.

“Why, did I say granola too often?”

“Yes,” Fareeha whined, elongating the vowel.

“Alright,” Angela said. She looked at Fareeha for a few moments before whispering “granola” one last time and bursting out a laugh at the annoyed and slightly uneasy glance it got her.

“What's bothering you so much about it?” She wanted to know, pulling her even closer by their linked arm.

“The repetition,” Fareeha said, bumping their shoulders together. “You've got words that bother you.”

Angela agreed with a half-hearted shrug.

“Are we only taking our— our dried, sugared bars of breakfast for snacks or are we actually taking a can or two?” Fareeha asked as she fastened the heavy door so it wouldn't slam shut with an unexpected blow of wind.

“It won't hurt to take one each, I suppose,” Angela answered, smiling at Fareeha's attempt at not mentioning the granola bars by their name. 

Angela was back at climbing the counter to reach the cans, silently cursing herself for of having taken down all of them the previous night.

She tossed them down where Fareeha caught them and placed them onto the counter next to Angela, while the blonde tried to get back onto the floor somewhat gracefully. She stopped halfway through and sat on the counter, watching as Fareeha went to work on one of the cans. 

“Move,” Fareeha patted Angela on the thigh gently.

Angela turned and pulled her feet up onto the counter, which made Fareeha grimace slightly. Super sanitary. But they wouldn’t stay for much longer anyway, so what did she care.

Fareeha pulled open the drawer that now wasn’t blocked by Angela’s legs anymore and held up two forks, one which was taken from her swiftly and stabbed into one of the peach halves.

Angela sniffed it but deemed it alright, at least she took a bite out of it.

Fareeha watched, waited for a reaction. When she was sure that she’d be alright eating the fruit she took a bite as well. It was disgustingly sweet but she’d survive.

“I’d rather not get used to this,” Fareeha admitted.

“It’s better than squirrel,” Angela said, thinking back to their fluffy friend from the previous day. She wouldn’t enjoy eating one of his squirrel-friends, at all.

“There’s not a lot of meat on a squirrel, anyway.” Fareeha took another bite and shrugged.

“There’s no meat in here,” Angela pointed out, wiping some of the juice off her chin.

“I don’t eat peaches because I expect to get lots of protein out of them, though. Squirrel probably has  _ slightly  _ more of that.”

“But if you’re carb-loading these would definitely be the better option.”

“I didn’t say anything else.”

“I know,” Angela assured. She knew that Fareeha knew where to get her nutrients very well, after all.

 

“So we’ll go that way, correct?”

Angela looked up from where she fastened her backpack around her waist, to follow where Fareeha was pointing.

“Yeah,” she nodded.

“It doesn’t really look like there’s a path there,” Fareeha doubted, but started walking anyway.

“Well that’s what the map says.”

“Did you read the compass correctly?”

Angela shot her a long-suffering look. “No, Miss Amari, after years with the military I did not manage to pick up on how to read a compass, yet, neither do I know how to use one in relation to a map.”

“You don’t need to be so aggressive about it,” Fareeha laughed and bumped Angela’s shoulder. “I’m sure the tablet is just fine with telling you which direction to go.” She grinned at Angela’s annoyed sigh.

“I hate you.”

“I know, I love you, too.”

“Good.”

The open grassy space wasn’t as big as they had thought. Somehow everything around here proved to be weird in scale and there truly have been better maps, but there were maps at least.

The path was somewhat overgrown, just like all the trails around, but it was still very obviously there. A small creek with very little water running through it, lined the path on the left, and hip-high bushes were growing happily on the right.

The trees spanning overhead were thick and build a natural tunnel around the path, it was impossible to see farther than a few feet into the woods on the sides.

It was the perfect setting for a horror movie, or it would be with less light. With the bright sunlight fighting to stream through the crowns of the trees the whole place was painted in various shades of green, giving the grove a warm feeling. If you believed in the fae it might have made you uneasy, walking through this eerie grove, but there was no denying its beauty.

“Was it this … dense … yesterday?” Angela asked, not quite sure if she had just forgotten about it already.

“This is definitely different,” Fareeha assured her girlfriend. “But it’s super pretty, isn’t it?”

“It sure is captivating,” Angela agreed. “And the perfect forest to get lost in.”

“Adventure!” Fareeha exclaimed happily and had Angela laugh.

“I can’t decide whether you’re more like a child or a dog.”

“Child dog?” Fareeha suggested.

Angela laughed “Do you- do you mean a puppy?”

“Yeah, that,” Fareeha agreed, still excited. “Though I’m afraid it’s difficult to get lost on a singular, straight path.”

Angela nodded slightly. “That’s why we’ll stay on the path today.”

Fareeha pouted. “What if the path goes more than one direction at some point?”

“Then we’ll consult the map’s GPS.”

“Sounds fair.”

Angela raised her eyebrows. “What? No arguing over taking risks?”

“Nope?”

Angela still only looked at her doubtfully, but didn’t comment on it anymore.

It had only been a few minutes since they entered onto the path and the last of the bright sunlight didn’t reach their backs anymore.  Fareeha sighed in annoyance. “It’s supposed to be warm here!”

“Do you want to put on a sweater?”

“But it’s supposed to be warm!”

“Mountains just are like that. One moment you’d love to just get undressed completely, the next moment you need to put on a coat or two and then you take a turn and walk in shorts and tee through snow. That just happens.” Angela’s was soft even though the amusement was clearly present. 

“I refuse to like that.”

“You’ll get used to it,” Angela assured fondly.

“Still don’t like it.” 

They stopped anyway, pulling out something long-sleeved each. Angela, knowing how these kinds of placed usually worked, had put her Overwatch issued pullover on top of all her things and was quick to put it on. Fareeha was apparently less informed and had to find the right sock-roll, underneath a first-aid-kit and her bivy. When she finally got it out and put the roll back together.

“Better?” Angela asked when Fareeha shouldered her backpack again.

“Much,” Fareeha answered, re-adjusting the straps with the added fabric on her body. She put a hand under her chin, cracking her neck in both directions to relieve some tension.

Angela grimaced. She just didn‘t like that sound at all. She knew very well that it wasn’t harmful, but the sound still didn’t make her happy.

As they picked up the pace again slightly Angela listened to the birds, hidden by the leaves. They made the scene perfect, making her feel warm from more than just the sweater. It felt like home, like she had a place she belonged to again. That might have been Fareeha, though.

The path stretched on seemingly endlessly, not changing at all. Hadn’t it been for Fareeha’s watch, beeping once every thirty minutes, she would have been lost in time soon. It was three beeps before the creek crossed the trail. This bridge seemed much more secure than the first one, thick dark planks still sturdy even after years. It might have been the fact that rain could barely touch it, due to the thick roof overhead.

They were as bold as walking next to each other, at the same time, and it didn’t budge at all. 

“This is lovely!” 

The bridge was like a portal into a different forest. Fareeha looked up from her feet when Angela voiced her adoration.

The line of trees hugging the path closely broke open into a small clearing. It was by no means a traditional clearing, but after so much time under densely packed plants the light streaming through the crowns seemed blinding. The trail started winding a bit more, making it easier to climb up the fairly steep side of the hill. 

Fareeha looked up the trail, hands on her hips, blowing a strand of hair out of her eyes “I almost forgot we were were in the midst of some mountains.”

Angela checked their position on the GPS and shrugged. “If I'm not being lied to we've been steadily going upwards and even in a  _ very _ slight curve.”

“Well I didn’t notice it.”

“I said slight,” Angela smiled and looked back up the mountain.

The farther they got up the side of the mountain the less thick the mountain got. The trail was winding back and forth on the side, which meant they were walking a thousands of steps without  really getting closer to their destination. After the third turn Fareeha was over it, she had reached a point where she could enjoy the way without longing for their lodge to be there already. 

They had to stop once for Angela to apply sunscreen, as the sun started winning the fight against the leaves. The trail might have been beautiful and Fareeha definitely enjoyed the undivided attention her girlfriend could give her out here - without patients, without tasks or research or missions waiting for her - she couldn’t drop her guard anyway, no matter how much Angela had wished for it.

And it proved to be useful! At least she thought so at first.

It started with a barely noticeable cracking of leaves, which could easily have been a bird looking for worms in the ground.

Fareeha decided that it wasn’t worth thinking about too much, even though she caught herself thinking on it anyway. 

When it got louder, closer, even though far between the trees, she tensed up.

“You did hear that, didn’t you?” She glanced over to Angela, not wanting to seem like she was working but … her mind kind of was.

“We’ve been hearing birds all this time,” Angela reasoned.

Fareeha pulled her eyebrows together. “That was louder than a bird.”

“A big bird?”

Fareeha nodded, reluctantly, and tried to put her attention on the path again.

“You’re still thinking about it, aren’t you?”

“It wasn’t a bird.”

“Alright, then maybe another animal that lives around here.”

“That witch said there aren’t any animals left, here.”

Angela shrugged. “I’ve seen deer earlier. I don’t see why they shouldn’t be walking around here, too.”

“Or it might be someone who lives here and is only waiting for oblivious hikers.” Fareeha looked grim, even though she was somewhat joking.

Angela stared at the place where the sounds were coming from. “If you were planning on jumping us you gotta work on your stealth. Also we’ve got a gun so, y’know, maybe change your mind about that one!”

“What are you doing?” Fareeha whispered.

Angela didn’t even see her taking out her gun, she must have carried it in her waistband, hidden by her backpack.

“Making our non-obliviousness known.” Angela shrugged and fixed her eyes on the forest. The sounds had stopped as soon as she had called out, which either meant whatever animal was out there had frozen in shock or someone noticed that they were making noise and they tried to pretend they weren’t there.

Angela nodded in the direction of the trail, signaling Fareeha to just keep walking. “Don’t get trigger-happy on me now.”

Fareeha squinted but kept walking, using Angela to orient herself and stay on the path while still watching the forest. Angela pretended to ignore that.

It was almost a full two minutes before Fareeha huffed and put back the gun. “It’s a deer.”

Angela smiled to herself, suppressing the urge to say ‘I told you so’.

“Screaming out to it still wasn’t a good choice.”

“Maybe. I’ll be more cautious and you’ll be less jump-y?”

“Sounds like a deal,” Fareeha agreed, determined to do her very best, not very hopeful, though.

 

Fareeha’s watch had just announced 2:30 when the path opened to a treeless plateau. It really only was a with part of the trail, but it was enough for a well made of stone that looked positively ancient, and a picnic-table. This path of the trail placed hikers higher than the treetops, giving a stunning view. 

“This is what I was expecting yesterday,” Fareeha said, leaning on the wooden fence that kept you stumbling down the rockface.

“Well then how about lunch?”

“I’ll open the peaches,” Fareeha agreed and twirled around to make her way towards the table, where Angela had already set down her backpack. She followed Angela’s gaze and smiled.

“Go, I’ll prepare lunch.”

Angela pressed a quick kiss to Fareeha’s lips and skipped towards the colourful flowers. 

When Fareeha joined her with an opened can of fruit, two granola bars and two forks Angela was already halfway finished with a Chain of flowers. She didn’t bother stopping, just because Fareeha had brought food, and finished calmly, knotting the ends together for a flower-crown. She sat it don on Fareehas head and finally took the offered fork.

“A beautiful princess.”

“More like a queen,” Fareeha corrected, smiling for the picture Angela was taking with her phone.

“Of course, I am so sorry.”

Fareeha opened her granola bar, taking a bite. “You need one, too!”

“I could teach you how to do it.”

“But then we have one too much.”

Angela stared for a second. “Bracelet?”

Fareeha nodded, shrugging. “Alright, teach me then!”

“I’ll eat first,” she decided, crossing her legs underneath herself.

Fareeha nodded and took off the flowers to look at them. “This looks really complicated.”

“Not at all! You'll be fine.” Angela watched Fareeha’s doubting face for a moment. “You can go on and collect some of the long stemmed daisies.”

 

Another crown and a bracelet later they had packed up their things, collected their trash and were getting ready to continue on their way. Angela had taken out the tablet again to check so they wouldn’t leave in the wrong direction.

“So?” Fareeha wanted to know.

“We'll take the trail to the west, otherwise we’d just … kind off get nowhere.”

Fareeha pulled out her compass and turned until she was facing the trail. “Uhm. Hate to break it to you but there is no trail there. Are you sure you’re reading the map right?”

Angela shot her an annoyed glance. “Of course there is a trail there!” She looked up, following where Fareeha had turned to.

Her face fell. There wasn’t a trail. She pulled her eyebrows together and pulled on Fareeha’s arm to look at the compass herself. There … there really was a trail missing. “Let’s check it out..?” She was more confused than anything else.

Fareeha shrugged and walked alongside her girlfriend, to look at the treeline. They pushed some leaves and sticks to the side, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

There seemed to be a trail, but nature had definitely reclaimed it. Water was running just behind some fallen trees, overgrown with ivy and moss. 

“I don’t think this was recent…” Fareeha thought out loud. “They could have updated the map.”

Angela hummed. “The maps are older than us. They don’t even have a proper 3D-mode.”

Fareeha looked at her, shocked then confused, then just knida both. “So what do we do now? We can’t just go back? Can we take the other path?”

“That would be a two day hike at least”, Angela said.

“I don't think we are prepared for that. So. Go back anyway?”

Angela was quiet for what felt like a long time, it probably wasn’t even a full 30 seconds. “Adventure?”, she offered.


	5. I'm More Like Wonder Woman

“Yes!” Fareeha exclaimed, excited. “Where are we going?”

“ _ Pine’s Slope _ ”, Angela said and packed the tablet back up. She'd need it to check their position but she was somewhat afraid she could shatter it when it dropped it she slipped and fell on top of it.

“But that's not an adventure.”

“It is if we don't have a proper way to get there. See if you can find something over there”, she pointed to the right of the not-path and went to the left herself.

Fareeha didn't try to be careful, she tried to find a path. There was moss everywhere and the water was running through soft dirt, no way of jumping that. Well. It was, if you liked to get your feet wet and slick with dirt. In most places she couldn't even get to the water, with how thick the forest or how soft the ground was. The water seemed to collect there, where the ground had leveled out somewhat.

She tried the ground in various places with her boot, but all it did was making the material wet and dirty.

So Fareeha returned to where they had parted with bad news, hoping that Angela had had more luck.

“The ground is really … squishy?” Angela offered, poking her head out of the treeline.

“Same here”, Fareeha called back. She walked over to where the blonde bunch of hair had appeared to see if it looked at least somewhat more passable.

“Any way we can cross there?” Angela wanted to know, but Fareeha just shook her head.

“A small pond formed there. And I doubt you can leap far enough to get to the other side.”

Angela nodded and turned back to look at the creek. Fareeha watched her think patiently.

“Help me get some of those bigger sticks, would you?”

Fareeha nodded curtly, even though she was slightly confused.

The dead branches they collected were about as thick as her wrist, and her confusion was cleared quickly, as Angela began to strategically lay them into the soft ground. The first ones went down parallel to the water, with about a hand’s length distance between each other. When she had placed down four on their side, she stepped on them - two at a time - and threw down some branches on the other side of the water, going parallel to the water, as well.

“So you  _ do _ have those How Not To Die In A Forest survival hacks!” Fareeha laughed as Angela looked at her work, satisfied.

“I told you I know how to survive!” She laughed, as well. “Help me to tie those together, would you?” She nodded at the wood that she hadn’t used yet.

With some of their cords they tied them together and put them down over the water, like a bridge. With the branches running alongside the water the weight was distributed over more surface area and the makeshift bridge didn’t sink into the soft ground.

“Will those hold us?”

“One way to find out.” Without further ado Angela jumped up onto the wood. Well. She carefully stepped on it, not to challenge her fortune too much. It bend under her weight  –  and that of the backpack  – but didn't give way. She took the few steps to the other side quickly and jumped off as careful as possible. Her feet sunk into the ground almost up to the ankles and she grimaced.

“Careful!” Fareeha called, as Angela pulled her shoes out of the dirt, shaking off the worst of it.

“ _ I  _ made it already. You be careful,” she called back, listening to the creaking of the wood under Fareeha’s weight.

Angela stepped aside, for one to get out of the slick mud, for the other to not be in Fareeha’s way. Apparently Fareeha had learned from Angela’s mistake. She put more effort into jumping as far as possible, as to not sink in as much.

Angela ended up catching her when she lost her balance on the damp slippery leaves. 

“Thanks,” Fareeha said as she pulled down her top that had pulled up.

“Glad I can be of assistance.” Angela smiled and took another moment to make sure Fareeha wouldn’t go tumbling down to the ground, then she turned to carefully push aside a branch, ducking under it.

Fareeha placed her hand  next to Angela’s, not to get hit in the face by some tree.

“Do you know where we’re going?”

“Pine’s Slope,” Angela answered.

Fareeha grunted but didn’t dignify it with another answer. 

“Let’s get some good hard ground under our feet, then I’ll have a look at the map.”

The solid ground they were looking for turned out to be the path. There really just had been some trees blocking it and sure, it wasn’t a clean taken care of trail, but it was a solid direction to follow.

“This was less of an adventure than I had hoped for,” Fareeha admitted and hooked her arm underneath Angela’s.

“I’ve got to admit, it was a nice change of things.” 

“Oh?”

“Yeah,” Angela admitted, “you know … you bring out the worst in me. That’s all.”

Fareeha scoffed. “But also the very best.” She hesitated. “I do, right?”

“Why are girls who like girls always so insecure? Of course, babe, also the very best.” Angela turned her head to catch Fareeha’s eye, just to make sure she got her honesty across to her girlfriend.

“As if you are any different,” Fareeha pouted, but took Angela’s word for it. When she caught her eye, she had to remind herself to actively keep breathing. Angela was so fierce, not just in the way she held herself on the battlefield, but also in every part of her personality.

Whatever she did she did it with a passion some people would never find even once in their whole life. With Angela it didn’t have to be something that had national importance; every single situation had a tendency to become really intense as soon as Angela appeared in it.

That might just have been Fareeha's incredibly deep admiration and love for Angela.

“Are you blaming me for not being immune to insecurity?” Angela's voice had an uplifting tone to it, but Fareeha knew her too good to fall for it.

“I could never. I don't think anyone is immune to it. Not just girls, either. All the gays, Angela, all of them.”

“Whom are you hinting at?”, genuine curiosity coloured her voice.

“Have you ever just once  _ looked _ at Jesse? I'd have him on the battlefield any day, as a wingman too. But as soon as someone catches his interest? Blind as a fucking bat.”

“Bats aren't blind.”

“What?”

Angela laughed. “Bats aren't actually blind. Some of them have particularly good eyesight actually.”

Fareeha thought about it for a moment. “Then what animals are?”

“In German we say ‘blind wie ein Maulwurf’, so … like a mole, the animals. That live in the ground? But as far as I know they aren't entirely blind either.”

“He's  _ blind,  _ okay? That's my point. Blind as a person who can't see shit.”

“He is indeed,” Angela agreed. “But do you think it would be any different if he was into women? I for my part think that is just his personality.”

“It might be,” Fareeha agreed, shrugging one shoulder.

“We’ll never know. The only thing that is certain is that we are not spared of this condition.”

Fareeha hummed. “Is it a condition that can get me some sick leave, doctor?” Her face twisted into a cheeky grin.

Angela glanced over to catch Fareeha smile.”I am afraid that is not the case. However you are very welcome to come by to get a check up as often as you want.”

“I couldn’t afford that amount of visits, doc.”

“Overwatch is paying your healthcare,” Angela mused and sent a pointed look into her girlfriend’s direction to bring her point across. She doubted any of them had ever had to pay for their own healthcare,  _ especially  _ since they have been on the station in Switzerland. Or with Overwatch in general, really.

Fareeha huffed.

“And anyway,” Angela continued, “I would offer those check ups free of charge as often as you needed them.”

“Oh? Does that mean you might have found a liking to me, doctor Ziegler?”

“How could you tell, I thought your condition was keeping you from these kinds of conclusions.”

It wasn’t fair, Fareeha thought. Angela didn’t seem to have a problem with keeping a straight face in this conversation at all. Fareeha wasn’t exactly unable to control her own face either, but as soon as Angela was in the room all her training and abilities seemed to be thrown out of the window. Locked up somewhere in the very back of her head. Flushed down the drain. Whatever analogy would fit this scenario was fine. The point was that Fareeha was unable to control her joy when Angela was near her.

“Maybe my condition isn’t so bad after all.”

This time it was Angela’s turn to hum. “I cannot say that for certain without a thorough examination, and I would not honor my profession if I forwent all possible tests. I would like to kindly ask you to make an appointment with me as soon as we get back home, just to be sure.”

“I might want to make an appointment with Dr. O’Deorain, just to get a second opinion on the matter, you know. Second opinions are important, aren’t they?”

Angela looked at Fareeha with a long-suffering sigh, measuring her up with a piercing look. “If anyone is in need of getting second opinions it is Moira. Her work ethic is questionable at best. Why do you think I keep offering my opinion?”

Fareeha nodded knowingly. “She can be scary at times. But sometimes she can be pleasant company.”

“You and I have very different experiences, then.”

“You and I work in very different fields,” Fareeha said.

Okay. True. Maybe Angela just  _ was _ annoyed by working with that woman all the time. Maybe it would be different if Moira O’Deorain wasn’t just as annoyed by working with Angela. “She once told me I was behaving  _ very extra _ . She also called me a flute once. Whatever that was about.”

Fareeha shrugged. “A cultural thing, perhaps? Also,” she took a moment to pause, making her words all that more dramatic, “you  _ do _ have the tendencies to act extra. We’ve been over this, babe. We’ve been over this.”

“You are allowed to criticise me being extra as much as you want. She doesn’t.”

“Oh stop pouting. I don’t like seeing you pout.”

“I’m not  _ pouting _ .” She was. “I am not a child that was told to eat her veggies.”

“No, because you know all the scientific benefits of veggies and would never turn them down.”

Angela swayed her head while thinking about her answer to that. “I never really liked them as a child. But that could be due to the fact that my mother just blandly boiled every single thing she could get her hands on.”

Fareeha tried to hide her irritation. “Why would you do that? That takes out all the good flavour?”

“Believe me, I know that it does, she tried. But she didn’t like cooking, either, she only did it to feed me. I really don’t blame her. I just learned to cook on my own, as soon as I was old enough to find out about actual flavours.” Angela looked fond of her memories, far away. Her eyes wandered over the trees lining the path, the point where the path made a soft turn and seemed to disappear into a particularly big tree.

“We should cook together more frequently.”

“We really should. Please remind me again when we get back home.”

“It won’t be easy to coax you away from the lab, we both know that,” Fareeha said, no particular emotion in her voice. No accusation.

“I don’t only spend time in the lab.”

“Oh yes. Excuse me for not including the time you spend in the med bay and sleeping. Though I am right in assuming that you sleep in the med bay quite often, am I not?” Fareeha thought back to only two weeks ago, to feeling cold at night while overheating at the same time. She hated getting up to adjust the temperature in their shared room.

“I … I don’t usually sleep there.”

Fareeha stopped in her tracks,  turning Angela around at their linked arms to make her look at her. “I didn’t see you for three days. We  _ live together. _ In the same room. We share a  _ bed. _ And you are telling me you don’t sleep at work?”

“No I … I get caught up in my work easily. You know this.”

“Three days? Almost four? And you watched me at target practice afterwards? How were you even keeping your eyes open?”

Angela huffed and her face changed to annoyance, Fareeha supposed it was more in defense than anything else. “I have  _ possibilities _ , Fareeha.”

She clenched her teeth but decided to let it go. She made the active decision that this was a discussion for another day, when they weren’t on vacation and weren’t actually trying to have a good time.

“How much more until we get to the next lodge?”

Angela took another breath and unclenched her jar slowly. She closed her eyes and counted to three, took a deep breath and pulled her arm from Fareeha’s. Fareeha expected her to take off the backpack to retrieve the tablet, or even the old fashioned map. Instead Angela closed the distance between them, wrapping her arms around Fareeha’s middle underneath the backpack. It was a weird angle and it was uncomfortable and sweaty, but it was so so important to her. 

“I’m sorry.” a mere whisper. 

Fareeha slowly placed her hands onto Angelas shoulders, resting her chin on the blonde locks. She didn’t say anything, just moving her thumbs in small circles. After just a hand full of breaths she felt Angela’s own even out a bit more.

“I’m sorry.” It was muffled into Fareeha’s shirt and it was more the feeling of vibration that made Fareeha aware of the spoken words.

A sigh. Then Fareeha slowly moved her hands up to cradle Angela’s face in her hands,, moving her thumbs over her cheekbones carefully. She raised her face up, catching her eyes, making sure she had all over her attention. 

“I’m sorry.” There was so much vulnerability in her face. Pain in her eyes. “I don’t like fighting with you.”

“We weren’t fighting,” Fareeha assured, not too quickly to be a lie.. Because it wasn’t. “I love you.”

Angela smiled, still a little sad, but a smile. A genuine one. “I love you. So much.”

Fareeha took a calming breath, closing her eyes and resting her forehead against Angela’s, just sharing the air, the moment. “Please take care of yourself.”

“I do. All my risks are calculated.” Angela promised lowly, her hands coming up to rest on the other’s wrist, just shy of her own face. “I…” it got stuck in her throat before it could fully from into a though.

“I trust you.” Fareeha took the urge to speak from Angela, assuring with just three little words. They sighed in unison. Angela angled her head up slightly, catching Fareeha’s lips with her own. It was chaste, it was quick, but it meant the world, made the universe circle around them. All that was missing was cherry blossoms suddenly twirling around them.

When they pulled away it was much too soon but just the right moment at the same time. 

Without another word Fareeha let go of Angela, turning them around to resume on their way. She wanted to make it before nightfall and if they kept the serious talk up they wouldn’t make it, especially not if they kept stopping every time.

“I wanted to check how much longer we were going to need.”

“No you didn’t.”

“Yes I … did?”

Fareeha kept pulling her along the path. “It’s alright, there is only one way to go. We can check it out when at the next possibility to go two ways.”

Angela looked at her for a  moment, evaluating the situation. “Alright.” This was an amount of adventure she could live with, and as long as if made Fareeha feel like they were not following a closely knit plan… 

 

There was another deer, at least Angela was trying to tell Fareeha so. Again Fareeha wasn’t so convinced. She decided to go and investigate on her own while Angela grabbed the tablet and tried to guess how long they would take.

Fareeha pushed a branch aside and leaned forward to glance around it.  _ That _ most definitely wasn’t a deer. “No animals left my ass,” Fareeha mumbled and let the branch snap back, turning where she stood and striding back to Angela.

The blonde woman was frowning at the tablet, looking somewhat annoyed. She handed it to Fareeha with a “find us”.

Fareeha took the tablet out of reflex and looked at the screen. The map was opened, the small GPS symbol was blinking in the upper right hand corner. It put a frown on her own face, but she started tapping on the screen, trying every combination of things she could think of. 

“What kind of place doesn’t have a GPS signal?” Angela huffed, more annoyed than actually angry.

“Well…” Fareeha began. “There has never been an actual operation here. And it’s not like there is villages here.”

“But GPS! That is everywhere.”

“Bad signal? Too much stone? Too many trees? I don’t know. Maybe this thing is broken?”

Angela pulled out her phone, switching on the GPS with a swipe. She gave it a few seconds, then pushed her phone back into her backpack. “Nope.”

“Do you have the map on your phone or did you just check the GPS? Maybe it’s the map?”

“I don’t have it on there,” Angela shook her head. 

Fareeha held onto the tablet, hesitantly, then unlocked it again and started to investigate the map while also checking her surroundings.

Angela took the time Fareeha tried to orient them to take a look around herself. They had been staying on about the same height for about the last hour, and the forest had cleared on one side. There was a huge grassy field, filled with colourful flowers and little bushes. Angela could hear the bees, butterflies were playing among them and she could even see some dragonflies, indicating that they weren’t too far from some water. It was peaceful as soon as Angela let go of the feelings of annoyance.

“Here. I think we are at about this bridge? We didn’t cross it yet. I think.”

Angela took a hold onto the tablet and tried to follow Fareeha’s finger. “That could be over there. Maybe ten more minutes?” She agreed with Fareeha and looked at the path they had walked since their late lunch.

“If this was two hours, with the path staying as it is … we might be another two hours?”

“Yeah…” Fareeha checked her watch. “If that’s the case we’ll reach at about seven thirty. Let’s say at eight. If I’m not mistaken that would leave us with about an hour until sundown.”

“Which means, what. Almost two hours until civil twilight?”

“Yeah, that seems about right. We should be ready to be inside by then.”

Angela turned around for Fareeha to put the tablet back into her backpack. “Why is that?”

“I don’t care what that woman said. There was a goat on that mountainside. Nothing is dead around here.”

“Maybe the dangerous animals are, though. We haven’t seen any yet.”

“I don’t care,” Fareeha insisted. “We will be inside by civil twilight.”

Angela nodded slowly. “Alright. I don’t mind. Let’s keep going then, so we can make it in time.”

“We should have plenty of time,” Fareeha assured. “Look!” She pointed a long finger in front of them.

Angela squinted into the direction that was shown to her, then her face lit up. “The bridge!” It was incredible how small things could be so exciting. “Are you tired?”

“Uhh … no?”

“Race me to the bridge?”

“With the backpack?” Fareeha sounded hesitant.

“You did finish basic training with the military, didn’t you?”

Fareeha looked at Angela for a long minute. “Well. Yes. Did you?”

“Do you actually care  or are you just trying to ge out of this?” Angela grinned. “I dare you, Fareeha Amari, to race me to that bridge.”

“You’re on, doc.”

Angela didn’t wait for Fareeha to get a grip on what was happening. Fareeha was going to be faster than her so it seemed only fair if she got a head-start.

“Cheater!”, Fareeha called after her, then suddenly footsteps sounded heavy behind Angela as Fareeha began her own sprint.

Angela didn’t bother to take a look behind her to see how much closer Fareeha was getting by the second. It would only have slowed her down. Instead she concentrated on her breathing, in through the nose out through the mouth. She tried to ignore the pain her shoulders were in already - she had been in pain before they even started running if she was being completely reasonable about it. So the running really wasn’t the problem.

Soon she could see Fareeha out of the corner of her eye, pulling up beside and past her. “On your left!” she called and laughed, not slowing down.

When Angela finally reached the bridge Fareeha was leaning on one of its posts heavily, breathing just as labored and uneven as Angela’s own.

“How…” Angela took a second to take a wheezing breath. “How old are you?” She grit her teeth. “That movie is ancient.”

“But you got the reference.” Fareeha handed her bottle of water to Angela and straightened her back. “That makes you old, too.”

“And it makes you Captain America apparently,” Angela laughed, still in pain but determined to get through it. She took a swing of water, then another.

“Nah. I’m more of a Wonder Woman. But Jack? Definitely the Captain America type.”

Angela nodded. “I’ll give you five euros if you call him that to his face once we get back.”

“I’m not suicidal.” 

“Jack wouldn’t hurt you,” Angela promised.

“No.  _ He  _ wouldn’t.”

Angela squinted. “Sssssssix euros.”

“This might work with Jesse, but I’m not that easy,” Fareeha laughed and took back the now empty water bottle.

Angela tilted her head while thinking. “Seven and I‘ll convince Winston we need to have fries once a month for medical reasons.”

“Done!”, Fareeha agreed and promptly pulled in Angela for a deal-sealing kiss.

“We could’ve shook hands you know,” Angela said as she pulled away, still satisfied with the outcome of their little race.

“Where’s the fun in that, though?” Fareeha moved her head to both sides, to make it crack. “Now. Where did the motivation for that come from?”

Angela shrugged nonchalantly and left it at that. She didn’t plan on saying anything about it at all, and as if she sensed this determination Fareeha let it go, looking at the bridge instead.

“This looks about half as sturdy as I would like it to.”

Angela looked at the wooden suspension bridge. The ground was only ten or twelve meters underneath it, the drop could still be of deadly nature. But then again, even tripping over your feet could be if you fell in an unlucky way. It was about twenty meters to the other side and one of the wooden planks looked to be broken.

“Just hold onto the rope real tight. With both hands. And we should go one at a time, just to be sure.”

Fareeha nodded along and took a deep breath before putting one of her feet onto the bridge. “My turn to go first.”

Angela didn’t protest, just smiled half heartedly. “You know, I would like a sturdy bridge only once. We deserve some good foundation to walk on.”

“We have been walking on solid rock the whole day.” Fareeha took another step, listening to the creaking. “And we’ve had one stable bridge.”

“I love you!” Angela assured as Fareeha took another step. 

“I love you too.”

“Do you want the bag thingy? It’s for good luck?”

“No actually …” Fareeha turned around carefully. “I don’t know what it’s actually for. Yeah. Just throw it to me.”

Angela took off the backpack and looked for the bag she had buried somewhere in her backpack. She found it after a few seconds and left the pack where she had put it down for the search. She refused to throw it, she was positive that they would drop it; instead she dared a step onto the first piece of wood, stretching far to hold the bag out to Fareeha. 

Leaning back over as far as she could Fareeha managed to grab the small bag from Angela’s hand. She waited until she was alone on the bridge again, then continued her way.

Angela held her breath until Fareeha was back on solid ground. She shouldered the backpack again and took a deep breath to prepare herself.

“Now you don’t have the luck!” Fareeha called, looking mildly concerned. 

“I’d rather have my staff than the bag, to be honest!”, Angela called back, trying not to second guess their decision to follow this path. Maybe there was a reason the path was so overgrown in the first place. But with Fareeha already on the other side there was no turning back now.

Carefully Angela put her foot onto the bridge again. The first few steps sounded really good, minimal creaking and almost no cracking sounds. Angela reminded herself to keep breathing and nodded to calm herself down.

Another few steps and she was halfway across, holding onto the rope of each side tight. She heard a crack and quickly made the next two steps, catching her breath and concentrating on not looking down. She knew how far it was. She knew she didn’t want to see it right now.

Almost there. Only a few more steps. She nodded again. Then there was the dreaded sound of wood shattering, the sinking feeling - a big step to get away, but she put her foot down too fast.

This couldn’t be how she died. It just couldn’t. She had survived so much, she couldn’t take this darn drop now.

She felt her ankle being scratched open and tried to find fooding with the other leg, just to go straight through the next board again.

A hand closed around her wrist, then another around the forearm of the other side. 

Angela snapped her head up as Fareeha pulled her back through the wood, up and back. They tumbled, over each other and themselves, and then there was a hard hit to her head.

She closed her eyes, trying to listen. When her hearing snapped back into her head she opened her eyes just as fast as she had closed them, just to be met with Fareeha’s wide open ones. Suddenly everything slammed into her, the pain and warmth on her ankles, the pain in her wrist where Fareeha had grabbed it hard enough to bruise. The sound of Fareeha’s breathing and the feeling of her body that had caught Angela from slamming into the ground.

Angela could smell blood. Not from her feet. Closer. “You hit your head.”

“Just a little. I’ll be fine.”

“I’ll see about that.”

“Please,” Fareeha agreed and sat them up as good as she could.

Angela fumbled with her limbs and managed to roll onto her back, feeling like a ladybug that couldn't get back up. She opened the clasps around her body and fought out of the backpack, putting a hand on Fareeha’s shoulder to keep her from standing up. Instead she sat, leaning onto her own backpack and just accepting the silent order.

Angela got to her knees next to Fareeha, pulling the pack with her, already getting first impressions on the wound. “Not good but you’ll live,” she promised, pushing some hair aside. “Would you like the sponge or the spray?”

“Neither. Are you alright?”

“I’ll live, too.” Angela changed the way she was sitting to look at her legs. They were scratched up pretty bad and seeing the splinter that had wedged itself into her left leg didn’t help. Not bothering to grab any tools she pulled it out with gritted teeth and inspected the wound.

“You know what. I don’t care. This counts as an emergency.”

“Didn’t want to protest that,” Fareeha assured and watched Angela pull one of the biotic field emitters from a side pocket and set it down. She sighed when the first wave of good feelings hit her and leaned her head against Fareeha’s shoulder.

“I didn’t know you took those.”

“I took every variant the medbay had to offer.”

“You took your staff?”

Angela shook her head. “That’s in the armory, not the medbay.”

Fareeha nodded knowingly. Right.

“Seems like the bag was really working, huh? You made it okay and I didn’t have it, I almost died. We really should keep it close, I don’t care if you believe it or not.”

Fareeha went rigid underneath Angela.

“What is the matter?”

Fareeha looked horrified, “I … I dropped the bag into the river to catch you?”


	6. Everything Dead My Ass

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know how to defend myself. Just take it. I wrote this instead of sleeping.

“You … you what?” Angela sat up to look at Fareeha. She was joking, right? Of course, she was. 

“I needed both hands to pull you back up and I preferred sacrificing a dumb bag of herbs over sacrificing you.”

No. Nope. This wasn't happening.

“It is  _ just a bag of crap. _ We're trained soldiers. We will manage to survive without it.”

Angela couldn't pull her eyes away from the other's face. She was frozen in place, wondering herself why she thought that small pouch so important. But she trusted their host - she had been living there forever, she surely knew what was going on.

But maybe Fareeha was right. Maybe it was just all the superstition and maybe if Angela just started to believe that, placebo would make the bag basically there again. Or better yet, the other way around. No nocebo effect was going to kick in if she didn't believe in the superstition in the first place.

“Alright,” Angela stated. “Alright,” she said again. “How are you feeling?”

“Better by the minute,” Fareeha said and nodded. “Hey.”

“Yeah?”

“I'm sorry … I just. I couldn't hold onto the both of you.”

Angela managed a smile, not awfully bright but definitely a smile. “Don't worry about it. It was just a stupid bag full of herbs and who knows what.”

Fareeha looked at Angela for a long moment, then she nodded curtly. “How's your leg doing?”

Angela bent over to look at the wound. “A few more minutes will do us both a favor. Are you under the impression that it helps with exhaustion, as well?”

“It always does.”

Angela didn’t respond. She found that it sometimes did, but maybe it was just a matter of believing in it. And if it was, she wouldn’t want to destroy it for Fareeha.

A few more minutes later Angela collected the biotic field emitter and put it back into the side pocket she had taken it from, before getting up and hurling up her backpack again. “We should keep going. Maybe we’ll get a roof and some walls between us and the wilderness for the night.”

“We should make it. We didn't lose that much time,”  Fareeha said and looked around herself. “I feel a lot better now. If you want to make a pick up the pace a bit.”

“I'm alright with that,”  Angela said and adjusted her backpack before taking the first steps into the direction they had to go. 

Fareeha followed immediately and nodded towards the trail to encourage her girlfriend.

Angela nodded to herself before picking up the pace and looking straightforward. They could do this. They were trained for this. The path ahead of them didn't look all that promising but where else would they go now that the bridge was broken down? They didn't have anywhere else to go. And they would have to find another way back as well. At least it wasn't raining.

 

When something that almost looked like a hut finally came up over the hill the sun was already setting. It turned out to be another shack but the women doubted that it would hold a boat or fishing rods. The only source of water was the creek running down the mountains. It would have been too small to go kayaking in let alone use a real boat. The shack looked as if it had been abandoned decades ago.

There wasn't even a door on it anymore. Or a roof for that matter. It would not protect them from any rain or animals that could either climb or were small enough to fit through the door.  Then again neither of them believed that this was the lodge of Pine’s Slope. It couldn't be. 

Fareeha cracked the joints and all her fingers. First the left hand than the right one. Angela noticed that she did it a lot when she was nervous. It wasn't that the sound bothered her but she didn't like it either. Of course, medically speaking, there were no bad effects this would have on her health, and Angela was way past the point where she didn’t know what a bone-shattering sounded like. It just bothered her.

Angela sighed. “Do you think this is it?”

“I don't hope so. The other lodge had one like this. Maybe it's just four supplies.” 

“If not I think we've got a problem.”  Angela tried to see over the hill. There was an actual slope to their right. And there were pines on it. It was the first time since they started walking that there was a path of the forest with only one kind of trees. This had to be the right place.

“I wouldn't want to sleep on the floor tonight.”

“You mean the ground.”

Angela looked irritated. “I don't really care. I just want to sleep somewhere that resembles a bed.“

“So do I,” her girlfriend assured. 

“Wouldn't actual camping be more of an adventure though?”

“ I don't like tube tents. They weird me out.”

“How so?”

“They are closed so flimsily I don't like that.” Fareeha shrugged.

Angela squinted at her. “It's easier to get out of one of those though. You like places with an easy getaway don't you?”

“Yeah, I don't know. I just don't like them.”

Angela nodded, thinking. “Didn't we pack the throw-tent anyway?” 

“I don't know about you but I definitely packed the tube tent.” Fareeha shot a look at Angela.

“Tube tents are better than no protection from the rain, though.”

Fareeha looked annoyed. “Just as long as the wind is coming from the left or from the right. As soon as it’s strong and changes to be head on you're fucked.”

“In that case, you can always MacGyver something.”

“How old exactly are you? That show is ancient.”

“I thought we already established that I could be your mother.”

“That show was old when my mum was born. Also, gross.”

As they were coming to the top of the hill Angela was getting more and more confident that there was, in fact, another building. Unfortunately, it seemed to be in no better condition than the first one they had come by. 

“Maybe we should use the tent,” Fareeha grumbled, already looking for a place to put up the tent. She would look at the house, yes, but she already knew that they would be in more danger inside of it then sleeping where the animals to get to them.

Besides, there were no animals around anyway. Deer didn't eat people. Unless they were grossly mutated. But this didn't seem like a fall out zone. It also didn't seem like a place crazy, or not too crazy, scientists would choose to be the right place for trying out ideas. Also, a deer wasn't the most common lab animal anyway.

“Alright, do you think it safe to go inside?” Angela seemed uncertain. Fareeha knew that she wanted to go inside, but she could also see the fear in her eyes. Well, she couldn't see her eyes. But she knew the way her shoulders tensed. Angela worried a lot. 

“I’ll see if I can find anything useful inside. Maybe just wait here for me.”

“I am not staying out here on my own!”

“If the roof comes down on top of me someone will need to help me out. Someone who isn’t buried underneath the roof themselves.”

Angela crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked at Fareeha. “I am not staying out here.”

“Why not?” Fareeha asked, slightly irritated at the fight Angela put up over something so small.

“Because,” Angela explained, “it is already starting to get dark, we are in the middle of nowhere at a creepy lodge in  _ the middle of nowhere  _ on a clearing that looks like the scene for a horror movie and the worst thing people do in horror movies is split up while  _ in the middle. Of. Nowhere.” _

Fareeha cringed at the sound of Angela’s voice, sounding a lot like a mother telling her particularly dense child why eating off the ground is a bad idea. “Alright. Fine. But we really need to be careful.

“We’ll be fine,” Angela assured and grabbed the door handle, to swing open the door. It was jammed quite a bit, but after some persuasion, it opened towards the inside.

“So far so good,” Fareeha said and stepped inside before Angela could.

The lodge looked a lot like the first one, just way worse in condition. Way worse. Somehow the table that looked like it would take six strong people to carry anywhere, had ended up upside down, crushing two of the chairs. One chair seemed to have been shattered against a wall, all the pottery was shattered. There were at least two bird’s nests Fareeha could see immediately and the glass in the windows was cracked. Picture frames were laying on the floor and even one of the beams that were exposed under the roof was cracked in half. She wasn’t sure if they should look at the other rooms.

Angela stepped into the room next to her and gasped a barely audible sound that still cut through the unsettling silence inside the building.

She looked uneasy but determined when she took another step into the room. “We should check for something to eat.”

“Do you think we’ll find anything?”

Angela looked at the cupboards, thinking. “Not really. Let’s check it out anyway.”

Fareeha shrugged and went right past Angela, going straight for the cupboards on the other side of the room

They both started looking through the cupboards on opposite ends, planning on meeting in the middle. 

Angela swung open the third door, climbing up onto the counter to look into the back. She made a triumphant sound, catching Angela’s attention.

“There is canned peanuts here. Salted. Three cans.” She turned and made sure Fareeha was going to catch the small cans. 

“Peanuts. Peaches. Fish. We’re doing great,” Fareeha said and placed the nuts down onto the counter.

“You found more peaches?”

“Only one can. Also a can of carrots and peas.”

Angela nodded. “Good! Let me just check the last one here.”

The last one didn’t turn up anything else, but what they found was still going to keep them going for some more time.

“Do you want to check out the back rooms?” Fareeha held out her hand to help Angela hop down from the counter.

Angela shook her head and took the peanuts as soon as she was back on the ground. “I don’t believe we will find anything there.”

“We could take some pillows for tonight,” Fareeha suggested and looked at the door that probably öead into the bedrooms.

“That’s a really good idea,” Angela admitted and nodded. “Alright, go get some. I’ll wait here for you.”

“What about staying together?” Fareeha grinned at Angela who just rolled her eyes, though amused.

Fareeha pushed the door open, this one moved with ease. Angela stepped to the side so she could keep an eye on her girlfriend all the way, while she got two of the pillows from the bunk beds. 

When Fareeha came back out into the main room she grabbed the two cans Angela wasn’t holding already and made a nodding motion with her head towards the main door. Angela went first, making sure to check for Fareeha once outside, but none of them bothered with the door. What or whoever wanted to get in there could do so through the roof. There was more of the room exposed than still covered by it, after all.

“Do you want to pitch the tent or just use the bivy bags?” Angela looked around for a suitable place for either of their options.

“We could put up the bivys over there,” Fareeha motioned towards something that was roof-like between some trees. “But I’d rather sleep next to you.”

“Then let’s use the tent. Would you like to do that or make the fire?”

“You’re the one with the fancy necklace,” Fareeha reminded and made her way over to two trees that looked just the right distance to each other for the tent she had packed. 

“Okay, I’ll make the fire then.”

Angela sat down her backpack and pulled the knife she had fastened onto her belt and went to find some smaller sticks to start the fire with. Bigger pieces of wood weren’t hard to come by, but she wanted something she knew would start a good campfire.

“Did you check what tent you have packed?” Fareeha called over from where she was holding the folded up tube tent in one hand.

“I didn’t pack any tent at all!” Angela called back.

“Why is that?” Fareeha sounded surprised but started knotting the rope she wanted to use to pitch the tent around one of the trees.

Angela dropped the sticks close to where she wanted to make the fire and looked at Fareeha for a moment before shrugging and starting on building the campfire. “There is only two of us, we have a bivy bag each and one tent is totally acceptable. Especially since we didn’t plan on using a tent at all, anyway.”

Fareeha pulled the rope through the tent before making her way over to the second tree, looping it around the trunk and pulling it taut to make sure the tent was hanging just at the right height. “Alright, sounds fair.”

As soon as the tent was up Fareeha got both their backpacks and leaned them against one of the trees, the one where she wanted their heads to go. She pulled the tent as close as possible to the tree and placed the pillows inside, rummaging through Angela’s backpack for her sleeping bag. Everything was camo-colored. The tent, the sleeping bags, even the bivys. It looked super boring, but they were military grade, used on actual missions, so at least they were the good ones. Also, sleeping in bright colors in the middle of a forest just felt very wrong to both of them.

“Do you need any help?” Fareeha offered as she climbed back out, beds made and backpacks covered in a way that not even heavy rain would manage to soak them.

“Nope, I got this,” Angela assured and took off the flint necklace. “I love this thing.”

Fareeha smiled at her and sat down next to the campfire that looked cozy even before it was lit. 

“You could maybe check out how our food is looking. And water. We should keep an eye on that, as well,” Angela suggested and pulled up the first sparks.

With a dramatic groan, Fareeha got back onto her feet and made her way over to the backpacks to fill Angela’s request. “Okay, so. Two cans of peaches, three cans of peanuts, one can of carrots and peas. Twelve granola bars and a singular bag of trail mix. Two emergency instant meals. That’s it for food, and we are at two and a half liters of water.”

“We should maybe try to ration those out. Or we’ll have to shoot a deer after all,” Angela sounded sad, and Fareeha didn’t believe she meant it. She would probably rather starve than kill a deer.

“We still have those filter thingies which make water drinkable so much easier, maybe we should fill up on water before we leave,” she changed the subject slightly and took two granola bars and one of the cans of peanuts with her as she sat back down on the now steadily growing campfire.

“We could use one of them to fill up on water, yes.” When Angela was finally happy with the fire she got up to sit next to Fareeha and accepted the granola and took a handful of peanuts. Their saltiness was a welcome change to the fruit and honey-sweet granola they had had all day.

The flames danced around as if they were grateful for being brought to life by Angela, and a deep sense of calm washed over both of them as they had their dinner in silence. Somewhere between the granola bar and her second serving of nuts Angela had rested her head down onto Fareehas shoulder, closing her eyes for a moment. She hadn’t noticed how much energy the day had taken out of her and even with the small boost after the incident on the bridge she was dead tired. The sounds of the forest were slowly dying down as darkness sank over them, the sun had disappeared behind the mountains hours ago and they were closing in on nautical twilight rapidly.

“Are you tired?” Angela kept her eyes closed but waited for an answer attentively.

“Really tired,” Fareeha confirmed and threw back the last of her own peanuts. “Let’s put some more logs on the fire and go to bed,” she suggested, turning her head to talk into Angela’s hair.

“Sounds good,” Angela agreed and rolled her head around slowly, so Fareeha could take care of the fire. She climbed into the tent and pulled up the zipper on her sleeping bag as far as it would go, slipping into the hood.

Fareeha shut the tent as food as possible and kissed Angela goodnight before slipping into her own sleeping bag. She heard rustling as Angela tightened the hood around her face and did the same, laying on her back staring at the pitch blackness around them.

“Sleep well,” she said after a few moments, not sure if Angela had passed out already.

“You too,” Angela answered with a delay of a handful of seconds. “Forests are scary at night,” Angela admitted right after.

“We’re not alone though, so we’re good,” Fareeha said.

“Yeah.”

“I love you.”

Angela smiled. “I love you, too.”

 

Angela wasn’t sure what had woken her, she only knew that it was still the middle of the night. Her nose was colder than she would have liked, the fire had died down enough to give neither warmth nor light into the tent and it was still as dark as it could get.

Then she knew.

Something nudged the tent, right next to her.m

She went rigid, every muscle contracting, ready to free herself of the bag and sprint outside, climb a tree, whatever it took.

That something touched the tent again and … sniffed it? It sounded like breathing, and Angela prayed right at that moment, that it was only a curious deer. As long as nothing attached she would just stay right where she was and try not to panic.

It took two minutes, two minutes that felt like decades until the sounds finally left her side. She had figured out that it wasn’t tall enough to be a deer, and it really didn’t sound like one. It wasn’t as heavy, it walked way too light for that.

Angela thanked all the deities she did and didn’t believe in that they were on their own again.

“Is it gone?”

Angela jumped so hard she almost cramped up her foot. “Jeez. Don’t do that,” she whispered back.

“Sorry,” Fareeha sounded guilty.

“It’s alright,” Angela assured. “I think it is.”

“What was that?” Fareeha clearly tried to keep the concern out of her voice, she didn’t manage this as good as she would have liked to.

“I have no idea.”

They lay in silence for a few minutes, hoping to get some clues but at the same time wishing they would never find out anything about that animal.

A loud noise shocked both of them into heightened alertness. 

“The fuck?” Fareeha whispered.

“I…” Angela pushed her lips together and thought about it. “That might have been a fox.”

“Are you trying to tell me that a fox sounds like a drunken woman trying to imitate a dog barking but running out of breath half-way through?”

“That … isn’t how I would describe it but yes. If that is what that sounded like to you?” Angela confirmed and shifted slightly inside of her sleeping bag to get her nose to warm up.

“So,” Fareeha began, “birds, deer, a goat, and a fox. This place isn’t so dead after all, is it?”

Angela shrugged with one shoulder and then remembered that it was dark and they were lying down, so Fareeha really couldn’t see it. “They probably haven’t been up here in a very long time. Can you really blame them?”

“Hm. I can’t I guess.” Fareeha sighed. “We should get back to sleep.”

“Yeah,” Angela agreed and shifted again. “Good night babe.”

“Good night.”

 

The next time Angela woke from her dreamless sleep she could see clearly, even with the tent between them and the tent. The sun still hadn’t had enough time to warm up their surroundings a lot but they would get there. No point in going outside just yet. If only she didn’t need to pee. She would make it another twenty minutes. At least that’s what she hoped.

“Are you awake?” Angela asked carefully, staring at the ceiling.

“Mno,” the answer was immediate but sounded sleepy.

“Alright then,” Angela smiled and turned onto her side, then onto her front. She had slept in way better places than this kinda thin air mattress on a bed of leaves, but then again she had also slept in way worse places already. And she had only been woken up once, which was close to a miracle.

“Where are we going today?” Fareeha still sounded only half awake, if that.

“We can see where the trail takes us, that would probably be the  _ Rafting Lodge,  _ which should be the next one close to the path. Or we could pack up and go back to the lake and just spend our time there.”

“But … we can’t go back.”

Angela’s head snapped around as soon as she remembered her latest close call to death. 

“Did you push that memory away?” Fareeha asked knowingly.

“Yeah … probably counts as traumatic or something.”

“I don’t know, you’re the trained health professional between the two of us.”

“I am able to help your body. Not so much your mind,” Angela reminded Fareeha and sighed again. “So,  _ Rafting Lodge _ it is I suppose.”

“Jup,” Fareeha agreed. “Rafting sounds like fun.”

“Also dangerous.”

“Aww come on, we’re way past being responsible adults in any of our actions, don’t you think?”

“I don’t think I can ever be past being a responsible adult,” Angela admitted and smiled slightly.

“Yeah, I think you’re right,” Fareeha agreed. “That’s why you are the mum friend, after all.”

Even though she couldn’t see it Angela smiled in Fareeha’s general direction. “Someone’s gotta do it.”

“I don’t wanna get up just yet,” Fareeha admitted, sniffing against the still cool air.

“We can’t pack up the tent yet, anyway.”

Fareeha hummed in agreement, watching the small drops of water that had formed on the outside overnight. 

“Do you think the fox was looking for something to eat?”

Angela shrugged half-heartedly. “What else could it have been doing so close to the tent?”

“I don’t think it has ever seen something like us before. Maybe it was just curious.”

“That is probably only the case in Disney movies.”

“What do you mean?” Fareeha asked, turning in her sleeping back and trying to get a bit more comfy on the hard ground.

“An animal that has never seen a human being before probably wouldn’t go sniff at them out of pure curiosity. That’s dangerous and dangerous things are dumb if they don’t at least give you some food.”

“Maybe it screamed in warning when it ran away,” Fareeha mused and wiggled one hand out of the bag to draw into the condensation on the tent.

“If that’s the case that would mean there is more than one fox around.”

“Well, obviously.”

Angela looked at the pattern her girlfriend was doodling. “Yeah, I guess you are right.”

“I’m right? Remind me to put that into my diary tonight.”

“You don’t even have a diary,” Angela said, confused.

“None that you know of.”

“I admit you’re right all the time.”

Fareeha turned her head to look at Angela doubtfully and snaked her now cold hand back into the sleeping bag.

“Alright maybe not  _ all _ the time,” Angela admitted and returned the grin she got from Fareeha.

 

“Sleeping is so useless,” Fareeha announced, rolling up her sleeping back. 

Angela shot her a look, keeping a good grip onto her own bad so it wouldn't explode out of the tiny from she had gotten it down to so far. “Since when?”

“All it does is make you defenseless and hungry in the morning.”

“Can I object to that?” Angela asked, smiling down at her task.

“No,” Fareeha said, strangling the bag cover as far as it would go to make the bag as small as possible.

“What do you want for breakfast?”

“I think I'll be good with granola for now. Once we get back home I never want to have any of that ever again.”

“You like it way too much to stay away from it forever.”

Fareeha looked at her girlfriend for a moment, thinking. “I don't think I'll be able to  _ avoid _ it, no.” She watched Angela finish up her own bag. “Maybe there will be fish at the next lodge.”

“There is a higher probability of finding any living there than here, at least,” Angela agreed and exchanged her bag for two of the sweet snack bars and held one out to Fareeha who took it without another word.

“I didn't see a pathway other than the one we came on,” Fareeha said. 

“Yeah, there isn't one,” Angela confirmed. She stuck her free hand into the backpack to retrieve the tablet. “We'll have to do without a trail for some time today, get some real hiking in for once.”

“What is what we have been doing if not real hiking?” Fareeha questioned and took a bite.

“Hiking with safety wheels?” Angela suggested and opened up the map.

“Wouldn't the map be the safety wheels?”

Angela looked at her, thinking about it. “One of them,” she answered slowly and nodes once to herself before looking back down to the map.

“Whatever happened to  _ High Point _ ? Your waterfall.”

Angela stared at the map that had opened on her tablet and pushed around aimlessly. “We could do either. Or we go to  _ Rafting _ first and follow the river upstream towards the waterfall afterward.”

“That sounds like a reasonable plan. How far is it from  _ Pine’s Slope _ ?”

“Since there is no official direct way I can’t tell you,” Angela said and looked at the map a bit closer. “We’ll have to cross the river, which should be small enough to jump over around here. We could go and look for a bridge but I would prefer to not cross any of those for some time.”

“Yeah, no bridges for the day sounds good,” Fareeha agreed and sat closer to Angela to look at the map as well. “Maybe we should just start in the general direction of the lodge and then just … well … see what happens. We’ll end up  _ somewhere  _ identifiable.”

Angela nodded and pointed at a point on a trail that looked like it was only a few miles away. “If we can make it to here we should be able to just follow along. So we don’t get lost.”

“We spent a night outside a lodge already, how bad could getting lost be?” Fareeha said.

“Last night was terrifying!”

“Only that one situation. We made it out just fine, didn’t we?”

Angela looked at her, not sure if she was kidding right then or not. “I really don’t want to be as scared as I was last night.”

“You sure are jumpy for being with Overwatch. It was just some wildlife. We will be fine.”

“I know…”

Fareeha nodded and looked at the map one last time before taking the tablet from Angela and putting it back into the backpack. “Let’s pack up and get going. The earlier we leave the further we can make it today.”

“It shouldn't take too long to make it to the lodge. Not with our shortcut.”

 

Their shortcut took them along the slope which meant they were needing more balance than anything else, but they were keeping up a good pace. The river really wasn’t impressive at all where they crossed it and the morning air was still cool enough so they didn’t break a sweat.

After they crossed, the slope evened out on top, sunlight was filtering through the leaves and the birds sounded just as happy as they had before. 

“Hey, Angela?” Fareeha called for her attention.

Angela looked up from the tablet she was holding, following her girlfriend’s gaze. “Is that a backpack?”

“I think it is. I’ll go check it out,” Fareeha confirmed and skipped down the still quite steep slope to their right to get closer to it. “It is!” she called out to where Angela had come to a stop.

“Any sign of an owner?”

“Nope,” Fareeha answered and lifted the pack from where it was stuck between the roots of a fallen over tree. “Should I bring it with me?”

“Yeah, let’s have a look at it,” Angela decided.

It looked like it had seen better days, but Fareeha guessed that it had only been there for a few months. It was dirty but still very much intact, safe for the shoulder straps being ripped a bit. 

“Who would leave this behind?”

Fareeha shrugged and opened the main bag. They were greeted with some cans of food and some water, clothes and a phone that didn’t look too old either, but was most definitely dead. 

“This isn’t enough for a real hiking trip,” Angela said and opened the side pockets, which didn’t hold anything.

“Maybe they have a shelter close by?”

“Do you think someone is living out here?”, Fareeha asked, keeping her voice level.

“Maybe. I don’t know. But I don’t think they would still have cans of food. Wouldn’t they just hunt or fish instead? Maybe have a small garden even?”

Fareeha raised both her eyebrows. “Yeah maybe. But it doesn’t make sense to leave the backpack here just like that. It was easy to reach after all.”

Angela looked uneasy taking off her own bag to take the food. “Pea soup. Corn. Chicken with rice. Chicken noodle soup,” Angela read aloud. “This is way more meal-like than the thing we found so far.”

“Maybe this person was at the lodges before us and didn’t like peaches and peanuts.”

Angela shouldered her backpack again and fixed her ponytail. “Possible.”

“You don’t really believe that, do you?”

“Not for a moment,” Angela admitted and looked down at the backpack. “Should we leave it here?”

“I don’t think we should take it, so…” Fareeha looked down to where she had taken it from. “I could bring it back down there but like, why.”

Angela nodded and they kinda just put it up against one of the trees. She felt a bit bad for leaving the trash that it had basically become lying around in the forest but carrying it really wouldn’t be the smartest thing to do. Where would they bring it anyway? And maybe someone could make use of it somehow. Someday.

“Should we just keep walking that way?” Fareeha nodded to the part of the forest right in front of them and Angela lifted the tablet back up. “Yeah. I think we should just walk along the slope, it should get steeper at one point, then we’ll find the path eventually. It’s drawn in as a cliff-walk.”

Fareeha nodded and linked her arm with Angela’s. She waited for her to switch off the screen and pulled her along the slope, then. “You know, maybe whoever left the backpack wanted to go exploring behind that tree and just … slipped. That happens. Maybe it was raining. Or winter.”

Angela kept looking straight ahead. “Yeah, death is quick out here. It is possible. It would explain a lot.”

They walked in silence after that. They were confronted with death all the time, due to the political situation, the news, their jobs. It was just part of their lives. But that didn’t mean it ever got any easier thinking about the possibility of their own doom lurking just a wrong step away.

 

“Is that a lodge already?” Fareeha pointed slightly to the left and Angela pulled up the map after sending a look in the mentioned direction. 

“No. No, it isn’t, not an official one anyway.” She frowned. “Should we check it out?”

“Of course!” Fareeha reached back for her gun. “I’ll go first, that’s not negotiable.”

Angela recognized the chief-of-security-voice immediately and knew that protesting would be no good, not even coming from her, so she didn’t even try. She just nodded and fell back two paces, leaving Fareeha to her plan that probably only consisted of being as quiet as possible and pointing a gun at everything that moved.

Angela watched her turn the corner of the clearly improvised hut and fell back even more. The hut looked self-made, but it would definitely keep out the rain and wildlife. It was a lot smaller than the lodges were but it looked cozy in a weird way. If it didn’t look like it might collapse at any point now she wouldn’t mind staying for a bit. 

As Angela walked around the corner after Fareeha she could see the broad pathway just a few meters behind it. She threw a quick look towards Fareeha, who was busy at the door and stepped onto the path instead. To the left, it curved off behind the trees, to the right the trees opened up. Angela stepped to the right, leaning over the cliff slightly to look down. It was way too steep to climb down without the right equipment. On the other side of the way, the cliffs continued on upwards, just as unclimbable.

The wind sounded louder than it probably was, so did her footsteps when she stepped back towards the small building.

“We’re good!” Fareeha called from inside, just before emerging with something that looked like ropes. “Is it steep over there?”

“The path isn’t, but everything around it is really steep.”

“Should we take these?”

“There’s always use for more ropes,” Angela agreed and took one of the colorful ropes held out to her. “Is there anything else in there that we could use?”

“Just a bed I wouldn’t sleep in even if you offered me money for it and some dirty dishes. That’s it. Not even a table, everything was on the walls or on the ground.”

Angela blinked at that, then shook her head to not go off thinking about that. “Did it look like someone was here recently?”

“If it did I wouldn’t take their stuff. The mold on the dishes is so old it is barely moldy anymore.” She shook slightly, trying to forget the smell. “Anyway. Let’s go find out lodge, shall we?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The fox-conversation is based on an actual conversation I had while not being totally sober. It was honestly so scary when it happened lmao
> 
> Also: I know this is an awful chapter break but I just wanted to upload something, so you got this. I already have started on the next chapter and am currently super motivated to type things, even though I am running on energy drinks and the stress of procrastination, so it might not all make a lot of sense once I get back to a healthy lifestyle. I am sorry already but look! New chapters!!


	7. Fun Afternoon Activities

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It hasn't even been two weeks and here is the new chapter. Magic, I know.
> 
> Maybe you noticed I don't have the energy to proofread a lot. Sorry. I hope it'll get better once my exams are done.

“So this is the official path to  _ Rafting Lodge,  _ right?” Fareeha looked up at Angela’s back for a moment before directing her eyes back down so she wouldn’t accidentally misstep. There was no space for that on the path they were currently walking. She had never before wished to be a goat so bad.

“It is a path, honestly the only one we could have reached without taking a very very long hike around the mountain. We would probably cross country borders rather than getting back to the village if we went in the other direction,” Angela explained, speaking louder than she usually would so she didn’t have to turn back to face Fareeha.

“Actually,” Fareeha said, “how  _ will  _ we get back to the village. Is there another bridge over the abyss I almost lost you to?”

“Yeah, there probably is. But it could take some time to get there.”

“Then this will be more adventurous than you’ll like, you are aware of that, right?” Fareeha asked, taking a slightly bigger step to avoid a funny looking stone.

“It already has gotten way more of an adventure than I anticipated. Maybe we should just call in to be picked up once we want to leave.”

“But where is the fun in that?”

Angela sighed. “I just don’t want to get lost for real, that is all.”

“We have a map of paper. We have a map on the tablet and we have satellite phones, both with solar chargers in case of emergency. I don’t think getting lost for real is something that will happen to us.”

“Don’t say that.”

“Oh right, sorry,” Fareeha said, not wanting Angela to be upset over jinxing them. She lifted her fist to her head and knocked against it three times, not hard at all, just as a gesture. “Knocked on wood, we’re good.”

Angela smiled at the stones in front of her, fairly aware that Fareeha could not see her, but trusting that she could hear it in her voice nonetheless. “Thank you.”

“Anything for you,” Fareeha assured and took a moment to look out at the valley that lay to their right hand’s side. 

“It is so beautiful here, we really should have taken a camera.”

“You have a phone,” Angela reminded her and stopped walking as well, turning around carefully with one hand against the natural wall of stone, until she could lean her back against it.

“That’s not the same thing.”

“It’s better than nothing, though, isn’t it?”

Fareeha shrugged half-heartedly and turned around to face away from Angela. “Would you?”

“Where is it?”

“Left side, I think.”

“Yup,” Angela confirmed and pulled the zipper back shut, waiting for Fareeha to turn back around. She held out the phone and smiled as she opened the camera immediately.

“Selfie?”

Angela laughed. “Sure, let's go.”

It was a bit difficult to get both of them and some of the scenery in the frame, but they managed to get a few promising photographs. 

“While you have that out, see if you can send a text back home.”

“We're on day three already?” Fareeha looked at the date on her phone slightly horrified. “It didn't feel like that long. I mean sure, it's been two nights…” 

“Usually, three days go with two nights,” Angela grinned at the overly dramatic look of annoyance she got.

“I’ll just text my mother, she’ll probably tell the others we’re doing fine.”

“I sure hope she does, otherwise I’ll be the one whose head will be ripped clean off.”

“Guns don’t rip off heads all that clean,” Fareeha grinned down at her phone while typing.

“She wouldn’t straight up  _ shoot  _ me.”

Fareeha paused from writing out her text to look at Angela with one eyebrow raised in question.

Angela held her gaze for a moment, letting the scene play out in her head. “Nope, she definitely wouldn’t shoot me over something like this.”

“If you say so…” She shrugged and looked back down at her phone.

“What kind of novel are you writing your mum anyway?” Angela asked.

“Wait.”

Angela did, patiently. Having a railing or at least something to clip a carabineer into would be so great on this stretch of the path. The fact that there was neither probably said a lot about how many people used this trail, even in times of good tourism. They hadn't seen a single sign that would have confirmed they were going into the right direction, either, and Angela would have seriously questioned if they were doing the right thing if one, the map didn’t say they were and two, they had any other obvious choice. But like this, up seemed like the only way to go.

“Alright,” Fareeha said and dragged Angela out of her thinking. She cleared her throat dramatically. 

“Good morning! Angela and I are doing great, we saw supposedly dead wildlife that isn’t so dead after. We almost died, but only once! We are not sure how we’ll get back yet, but maybe we’ll just stay and live in the mountains instead. Don’t worry about us, we’re having a blast! Love you, tell everyone we miss them!”

Angela looked at Fareeha, shocked. “Did you actually write that?”

Fareeha laughed. “You should see your face!” She shoved the phone into the pocket of her jeans. “No, I did not. I told her that we’re fine and that the scenery is really beautiful. And that we’ll keep them posted. I did tell her I love her and to say hi to the others.”

“That’s probably … good. That you didn’t tell her about almost dying. They would probably come up here and get us out. Like, we would have them up here, all of them.”

“You are the one who wanted to call in for pickup,” Fareeha said.

“Yes. At a time that we choose to because we want to. Not because someone decides that we have had enough.”

“That’s fair,” Fareeha agreed and turned back to look at the scenery one last time. “Let’s go.”

Angela turned one hand along the stone wall and eyed the path in front of them. The curve got stronger in front of them so there was no telling if the path would stay as easily walkable as it had been or if they would maybe have to turn around at some point.

As they made their way around the curve the wind picked up. Angela had wondered where it had been, no wind in the mountains just sounded fake to her, but apparently, they had just been in a good place for some time.

“Be careful not to be blown off!”

“I’ll do my best!” came the answer from behind her. “How is it looking?”

Angela stopped to let Fareeha take a look and also to get a better view on what lay before them herself. The path was getting steeper steadily and maybe even broader. Not enough to walk next to each other but definitely enough to make up for the increased steepness. 

“That looks like actual work,” Fareeha complained.

“That’s what hiking in the mountains is supposed to be like,” Angela called back to be heard over the wind. 

“I  _ know _ . Let me complain a bit!”

Angela shrugged. “But that’s doing nothing to lift the mood!”

“I’m in a great mood I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“Well then,” Angela said, “complain all you like!”

It faintly sounded like Fareeha was laughing for a moment. “Don’t encourage me!”

“Yeah yeah, I know.” Angela smiled and waved around her hand aimlessly and picked up walking again, a bit slower due to the incline but still at a reasonable pace.

A few small trees had won the fight against the solid wall of rock, growing happily on the steep cliffside. In a few years time they might carry some fruit, but maybe they weren’t even edible. Fareeha couldn’t really tell what kind of trees they were. 

 

“I kinda miss hot showers,” Fareeha said and shifted most of her weight to the left leg.

“We haven’t even been gone for half a week,” Angela said, laughing. “You are used to not showering with a nice temperature and water pressure for some extended time.”

“No, but  _ usually  _ I get paid for not being able to execute basic human hygiene.” 

Angela appeared back in Fareeha’s vision from where she had gotten the water from her backpack. She gave the bottle to Fareeha after taking a swing herself. “ _ Usually _ you don’t get to appreciate the scenery as much, either.”

“Scenery,” Fareeha repeated dryly.

The path had made a sharp turn into the cliffs, closing into something that was basically a ravine by definition. They had decided to take off their shoes and make their way through the stream while barefoot. The sand was silky and there weren’t any obvious living creatures in the water; the water was maybe too hand’s width deep in the deepest places. They changed their jeans for shorts on the cliffs, which was really nerve-wracking, thank you. Their shoes had their socks shoved inside them and were kept dry in their backpacks.

Every now and then there wasn’t any sand, just smooth rock, which curiously enough wasn’t slippery at all. 

“It’s pretty here!” Angela insisted and took back the bottle, taking another sip and walking back around Fareeha to put it into its place in the backpack.

“I wouldn’t call it ‘scenery’,” Fareeha insisted.

“Then what would you call it?”

“I don’t know! Not scenery!”

Angela waited for her girlfriend to turn and look at her before linking their arms and coaxing her wordlessly to start walking again. “The dictionary definition of ‘scenery’ happens to be ‘the natural features of a landscape considered in terms of their appearance, especially when picturesque.’ We are in nature. This kinda counts as landscape and I would say it is definitely picturesque.”

“Why do you know the dictionary’s definition for ‘scenery’?”

Angela pointedly didn’t look at Fareeha. “I just do.”

“But why did you deem it necessary to not only look it up but also to remember it word for word?”

“It was necessary knowledge in a … discussion I had with someone.”

“Since when do you pick fights with people?”

Angela shook her head. “I didn’t pick a fight with anyone. We were discussing … things.”

Fareeha looked at Angela’s profile. “Whom did you have a discussion with?”

Angela made a face of distaste but didn’t comment any further.

“Alright, got it.”

“What?”

“You were fighting with Moira again, weren’t you?” She grinned.

Angela’s jaw clenched for a moment and she looked like she was about to say something, amazingly enough, she swallowed whatever it was down and opted for a shrugging motion instead.

“We weren’t fighting.”

“What did you have a  _ discussion  _ about, then?”

Angela took a deep breath which definitely wasn’t a sigh. “I was explaining to her that the word cannot be used to describe a person.”

“What word?”

Angela looked at her pointedly.

“Oh right! Sorry, I was fighting for an answer I forgot the question,” Fareeha shrugged, the grin appearing back onto her face.

“So, whom did she describe like that?”

“No one, it was a hypothetical discussion.”

“Did you fight with her in your head again?”

“As if you never do that!” Angela said a bit too quickly.

“I wasn’t accusing you. But … did you actually look a word up to correct the Moira in your head?”

“I’m glad it’s so entertaining to you,” Angela said.

Fareeha petted the arm that was linked with hers. “Don’t worry, I know you’re not crazy.” She smiled at Angela. “Well, not more than the rest of us.”

“A bit crazy is healthy sometimes.”

Fareeha laughed, the sound echoing between the walls to their sides. “I thought you weren’t qualified to make statements about psychological subjects.”

“That wasn’t a professional opinion, it was my own,” Angela clarified, finally smiling again. 

“Aren’t professional opinions your own opinions as well? Just, as a professional?”

“Are you implying my non-professional opinion cannot differ from my own?”

“Well, I think it shouldn’t. Also no, I was implying that you were implying that your professional opinions aren’t part of yourself. Do you have a tiny hamster whispering opinions to you hidden in your hair?”

“Why a hamster?” Angela asked, outright laughing now.

“Hamsters are cute and not too heavy to carry around in your hair.”

“That sounds way too reasonable. No. I am not hiding a hamster from you.”

“Yeah, you better not. Poor thing wouldn’t have eaten in days!”   
“I could have fed it when you weren’t watching,” Angela objected.

Fareeha looked at her for a second. “We spent every moment together.”

“No, you went fishing and I was collecting firewood, also bathroom breaks.”

Fareeha sighed. “Of  _ course  _ you are right. How could I ever doubt you.”

“See, you are doubting me too much, I’ve always been saying that.”

“Don’t let it get to your head,” Fareeha said, smiling. “But since you claim to not hide a small animal in your hair anyway, it doesn’t matter who was right.”

Angela paused for a moment. “I just said I’m not hiding a hamster.”

Fareeha whipped her head around to fully look at her, as scandalized as she could muster. “Angela, your hair is not a suitable place for any mammal to live.”

“How about a bird?”

“Well … I suppose it would feel at home up there.”

“What are you hinting at here, Fareeha?”

“I am not hinting at anything,” she said innocently.

“Yes, you are! You’re saying my hair looks like a bird’s nest!”

“Nope, you  _ said  _ that. I would never.”

“No,” Angela agreed, “you didn’t  _ say  _ that. But you were strongly implying that it does.”

“I am not a politician Angela, I don’t know how to talk right.”

Angela shook her head. “No, you got that mixed up. Politicians don’t know either.”

“True,” Fareeha agreed, nodding slightly. 

The path was winding tightly in front of them, sometimes the walls closed almost completely over them, but as scary as it was from time to time, they just quickly and as silent as possible walked underneath it. It did make for lots of nice photo opportunities, no matter how scary.

“Do you have any idea where we are?”

“Well …” Angela began.

“Don’t say in the mountains. I swear to the heavens.”

Angela laughed and gave her a guilty look. She had definitely just been about to say something along those lines. “I wouldn’t say something like that,” she assured.

“Yes you would,” Fareeha laughed, soothingly.

“Mmmaybe,” she admitted. “To be frank, I have no idea. But where else do we have to go, honestly?”

“I just wanted to know how much longer we’ll have to walk today, that’s all,” Fareeha explained. “I wish we could see what’s coming up.”

Angela nodded. “Yeah … we’ll be fine. Hey, is that a bridge?” She pointed at something coming up right behind the next curve. It was a couple hundred meters straight upwards on both sides, but it was definitely a bridge crossing the abyss.

“It sure is.”

“It’s not the one that almost killed us, though. Right?”

“Well. If it is we can at least get the bag back!”

Angela stared at the construction ahead of them. “I don’t think it is the same one,” she stated.

“Why not?”

“I am pretty sure we didn’t loop back like that. We have been going further into the mountains, we didn’t do a u-turn after Pine’s Slope.”

Fareeha’s shoulders slumped slightly. “Yeah, I guess you are right. But if there is a bridge we can’t be that far from another construction. A bridge means a hiking trail, right?”

“Sure. But that’s not any help to us. Like. At all.”

“Yeah…” Fareeha looked up the solid rock walls. “Guess we’ll just keep walking until we find a way out, then.” She kept looking up towards the bridge anyway.

“Is that only me or is something hanging off the bridge there?” Angela asked. 

Fareeha squinted slightly. “I think you are right.” She turned her head to look at Angela for a moment. “Does that look like an arm to you?”

“Unfortunately,” Angela agreed. “Uhm...”

“Let's just … not … think about it?” Fareeha suggested somewhat uncertain and looked at Angela.

“Think about what?” she asked. “Come on, let's get in as many kilometers as we can before sundown.”

 

“I know I wanted there to be a better sight of our path but … I would say this is even worse.” 

The walls were still just as narrow, but they visibly opened up down the path. Just after they did the path looked impassable - rocks seemed to have crashed down from atop, but it was hard to say how high the pile was. 

“I really hope we'll get past there,” Angela said, looking to each side of the wall for a possible second way out. They had come past a few small piles of rock, which never were a real obstacle to them. 

“Maybe it's not as serious as it looks,” Fareeha said.

“It better not be. I’m not walking back all that way to look for another possibility.”

“Yeah…”

The closer they got the more hopeless it looked. The pile kept growing in height, making it pretty clear that it hadn’t been a trick of the eye.

The small stream of water was snaking its way through the rocks on the left side, it had worked at the stone for what must have been months if not years.

Angela stood to the right, looking at the tiny waterfall. “If the water is getting out of there this high it must be even higher on the other side.”

“That’s maybe fifteen centimeters,” Fareeha said. “Maybe it’s not even knee-deep on the other side.”

“That would be awful to walk through.”

“But super doable.”

“Do you think we can get up there?”

Fareeha looked at the rocks for a moment, then she unclasped her backpack and cracked the knuckles on both hands. “Up, yes. Back down on the other side? I’ll have a look.”

“Wait, I’ll come with you.” Angela quickly sat down her own pack and looked around for a moment. It was silly, no one would steal their stuff here.

“Barefoot?”

Fareeha shrugged and stepped onto the first secure looking rock she could see. “Our ancestors did everything barefoot.”

“They also did everything without proper medicine. Do you know what that got them?”

“Death?”

“Yup,” Angela said and stepped onto her own rock, still barefoot.

“Just channel your inner mountain goat,” Fareeha advised, already a few levels ahead of her girlfriend. 

Angela laughed. “I’m doing my best.” She jammed her hands into the cracks and pulled herself up. “The worst thing is that we have to go back down to get our stuff” she complained, just partly joking. 

“Maybe one of us should have stayed down,” Fareeha agreed.

“But then we couldn’t have made this decision together.”

“I could have taken pictures up there, and then we could have decided.”

“That would have been waaay too easy.” Angela made sure not to look down at all. “Do you think we can get back down to get the backpacks?”

“Well…” Fareeha turned her head around to look back towards the ground. “If we don’t try to take your way back down,” she laughed slightly.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You don’t have to go that hard - rock climbing in the most vertical place. Show off.”

“Well, maybe I like it? This isn’t the worst climb I’ve done. And the cracks are huge.”

“Excuse me for preferring the easy route. This is basically like taking old stairs. We’ll get down no problem,” she assured.

The climb really wasn't that bad. Not if you took Fareeha's path anyway. Unsurprisingly she got to the top first, checking the other side briefly before swinging one leg over the top to sit as secure as possible, looking down to the ground and then to Angela. She put one hand over the top, found grip with her feet and pulled herself up to the top as well.

She stood where she was for a moment, then she mirrored Fareeha’s way of sitting quickly.

“This is where we live now,” Angela decided as she looked down onto the water on the other side.

Fareeha laughed and shook her head. “It doesn’t look that deep.”

The water was crystal clear, just as clear as the Swiss tap water she had gotten used to over the last year. With the slight difference that it glimmered in a green-turquoise way that made it look like the water one expected in a far away fairytale. 

It was calm, moving slightly against the rocks, visibly moving towards the spot where it was trickling through the rocks towards the other side. The ground looked smooth, a few plants had managed to grow towards the right side, where the water was almost completely unmoved.

“I don’t know… Maybe it doesn’t  _ look  _ deep, but can you really tell from up here?”

“I am not going for a swim right now,” Fareeha laughed slightly and looked around her. She bent down to pick up a someone rectangular stone that was about twice the size of her palm holding it out to Angela. 

She took it curiously, holding it in one hand.

Fareeha grabbed for the thinner rope she had fastened onto her belt and detangled it from the thicker climbing rope. “I’ll tie this up like a present and then we’ll see how much of the rope gets wet.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Angela grabbed the stone by the sides and held it out, holding the rope in place when they flipped the stone over and tied it on the underside. She tugged on it twice, dangling it between them. When it didn’t move around in the rope she handed it back to Fareeha. “Your idea, your call.”

Fareeha nodded and took a hold of the rope again. She lowered the stone carefully, letting the rope run through her fingers slow enough to not cause any accidental chafing. When the stone touched the water she got more attentive, leaning over and watching the stone carefully. She was taking it very slow to make sure she didn’t move the water too much.

She could see the water dirtying up the same moment she felt all the weight falling away from her hand.

“Okay, it’s all the way down,” she informed Angela and started pulling the rope back up. 

She sat the stone onto the rocks in between them, looking for the place where wet met dry with her fingers. When she found it she held it up firmly, raising her arm until the rope was taut. “That’s what … fifty centimeters?”

“More like sixty-five,” Angela said, looking exhausted. “We’re getting so wet.”

“And not even in the fun way.”

That got a small laugh out of Angela. “We should waterproof the packs, just in case.”

“Do you think we should put our boots on for this?”

“Boots yes. Socks no. I’m also taking off these pants.”

“You want to walk through the water without pants?”

Angela shrugged. “You’ve seen it all before. Also, it’s not like I’ll be naked. But every dry piece of clothing is a non-heavy one. Also a more comfy one. Who knows when we’ll get to a dry piece of land again.”

“Do you think we won’t make it before dark?”

Angela shrugged again. “I don’t even know where we want to make it, so hey. As soon as we have a somewhat even dry place to sleep I’m happy with it at this point.”

Fareeha nodded. “Let’s get our stuff.”

Angela set her feet onto the path Fareeha had taken down and slid down the first two meters. Fareeha followed as soon as she deemed it safe and whispered “adventure” excitedly, making Angela shake her head. She couldn’t completely suppress her chuckle though.

“It’s so weird without socks,” Fareeha said and pulled her shoelaces tighter before shouldering her pack and cracking her neck with the help of one hand. 

“Let’s take a dip,” Angela said, already halfway up the wall again, on the less steep path this time.

“Since when are you so eager to get wet?”

“Is that a joke question?” Angela turned her head to look back down towards her girlfriend.

“You and your dirty mind.”

“You love it.”

“Wait for me on top, we’ll find the best way down.”

Angela shook her head. “I already found the best way down when you were measuring the depth of our fun afternoon activity.” She paused to grab the next rock, almost at the top already. “We have to go one at a time anyway.”

Fareeha sighed fondly. “Babe?”

“Hm?”

“I love when you get all confident in your plans, you know that?”

Angela blushed instead of answering. Instead of swinging her legs over she stood up onto the wall of rocks this time, stretching out her arms to keep her balance with the added weight on her back. She looked for the broad stone she had seen earlier and walked over to it, slowly. It was almost at the right wall, had she taken two steps more she would have been able to touch it. She slipped down onto the stone carefully and got a grip in the wall to wait for Fareeha, making sure she knew what to do. Or what not to do in case it didn’t go so well for her.

“Okay, I see what you’re going for,” Fareeha said as she slowly made her way over to Angela. “Keep going, I’m right behind you.”

Angela nodded and looked down to securely take the next step down. She had to turn around and face the wall for it, jamming her boot into a quite big crack and setting the other onto the next flat stone. Two more and she could slip between two long-ish rocks that stuck out of the wall as if they were meant to aid the way into the water.

She got between them and placed a hand on each of them, slipping forward so that she was holding all her weight up on her arms. The most challenging part would be changing positions for holding her body above the stones to hanging off of them. Slowly she lowered herself down until she could feel the water at her boots. She took a deep breath and repositioned her hands to grip onto the stones so that she could control the drop of her body until she was hanging, legs in the water, arms stretched out.

“You’re almost there!” Fareeha assured. 

Angela took another breath and loosened the grip enough to slip but not fall. It gave her the two centimeters she needed to feel the ground beneath her boots. Still slipping as controlled as she could she dropped onto the tips of her toes, catching her weight skillfully, even without bending her knees too much, avoiding to get the water up to her waist.

Angela pulled down her hands and looked at them for a moment before clenching them into fists a few times. “Remind me to take that arm-day-offer Jack keeps making me,” she said and stepped forward to make space for Fareeha, turning around to watch her girlfriend.

Fareeha seemed to struggle less, way less. When she dropped down gracefully she brushed the hair behind her ear and chuckled. “Arm-day with Jack, core-day with Gabriel and leg-day with Hana and your week will be boot-camp hell. I promise.”

“That would make my gym-schedule the same as yours though,” Angela said.

“Very true. That’s why I know what I’m talking about.”

Angela nodded and turned slowly to start wading through the water at a slow pace, not looking back. “Why Hana anyway?”

“She got mad leg-strength. Have you seen her jump out of her mech?”

“I just can’t imagine her being mean enough to effectively train you.”

“She’s not mean at all, she’s the most encouraging person I have ever worked with. Well. She is right up there in the first place with Zarya.”

“She has made me work out with her before,” Angela said.

“Did you like it?”

“Well … yeah. But I don’t really have the time to work out as often as y’all do.”

Fareeha sighed, picking up the pace just slightly. The water seemed to not change a lot in depth but walking through water with leather boots on would never be her favorite feeling, so the faster they got to dry land the better.

“That’s because you work too much. You know you do. Just take half an hour out of your day. You’ll love it,” Fareeha said, sounding as honest as she ever would.

“Will you remind me?”

“Of course. Can I have permission to fireman-carry you out of the lab if you refuse?”

“Hmno. Not immediately.”

“Explain,” Fareeha said.

Angela looked at her, moving her head slightly. “When I am running a test I can’t just leave. I’ll make you an offer and if I don’t keep it  _ then  _ and  _ only then  _ are you allowed to swing me over your shoulder.”

“Sounds like a deal.”

Angela stopped suddenly, pulling Fareeha in by her hand and kissing her quickly. “That’s a sealed one.”

Fareeha smiled against her lips and shook her head slightly. “We don’t have to do that every time, you know.” Then she pulled her in again.

Angela broke away first, this time. “We need to keep going.”

“Are you sure we can’t just sleep here?”

“I’m getting cold already,” Angela complained a bit.

“Alright, alright. Let’s get to dry land.”

“There is none in sight yet, is there?” Angela asked as they started up their pace again.

Fareeha got onto the tips of her toes and tried to see as far as she could. “Actually, there might be. See where it’s getting broader again there?” She pointed in front of them.

“That’s at least an hour from here,” Angela said, one brow raised.

“But it’s a sign of hope for being dry.”

“Yeah…” 

 

Where the walls opened up more the water got shallower until it was only knee deep. To their left, the ground was high enough to peek out of the water every now and then and after another kilometer or so the wall to their right broke away sharply. It was still too steep to climb, but the trees growing on it didn’t seem bothered by that.

The wall to their left stayed with them just as straight as it had been since the beginning. The water pooled in some places, but nothing that could be called a pond. 

Angela looked over the huge opening. “Should we stay with the water?” She stepped out of the water and shook her feet to get as much water out of her boots as possible, watching Fareeha do the same.

“We should try for a signal again. It’s been more than 24 hours since we tried to use it on the map and my messages went out with the satellite phone. That’s a good sign, right?”

Angela nodded along, already unclasping and unzipping her backpack to get to her tablet. “We should also sync the map to all our devices,” she thought aloud.

“How? There for sure is no internet signal here.”

“Bluetooth,” Angela said.

Fareeha blinked twice, somewhat surprised. “Who even uses Bluetooth anymore? That is so old.”

“So is the internet.”

Angela unlocked the tablet quickly and tapped on the map icon, switching on the GPS while the app was loading. She watched the small circle for six and a half rounds before the white screen was replaced with the map menu. 

“Right, okay. Let’s hope for the best.” Fareeha looked at the upside-down list of maps and opened the right one before Angela could get to it. It opened to full-screen immediately. She opened the small three dot menu and chose the ‘current location’ option.

Both of them took a deep breath, not quite holding it. The loading circle re-appeared on screen and for a moment the app seemed to freeze, then they were flying over the map. A red needle pinpointed their current location.

“It worked,” Angela whispered in happy disbelieve and looked up, where the clear sky smiled back at her. “I’d still like to know why it didn’t work earlier.”

“I suppose we’ll never know,” Fareeha said. She was already swiping around the map, trying to get a good impression of their surroundings.

“Are you sure this is supposed to be a path?” she asked, looking between the map and the area surrounding them.

“No, not really. Why?”

“The closest drawn in trail is right behind there,” Fareeha pointed at the mountain towards where the sun was setting to their right. “Or we could try to get up there and take a bridge. That should then … take us back to the lake. I hope.”

“So what should we do?”

“Well, I don’t think we’ll get up there unless you have been hiding a jet-pack in your hair along with that bird.”

Angela directed her gaze upwards, to where Fareeha was pointing. “But we can’t just climb that mountain either!”

“Actually … why not?”

“Why not?! Because that is at least a two-day journey. That is, on mostly even territory with a clear trail to follow.”

“It’s not like we are on a time-crunch, though. If we want to we can easily take that hike.”

“Is this an adventure thing?”

Fareeha shook her head no. “But we can either try to climb a literal wall, keep walking the way we were going and … end up in a different country if I’m not mistaken or … well. We can climb that damn mountain.”

“I guess you are right,” Angela admitted. She looked concerned, a look that Fareeha hated. She looked terrified to someone who knew her.

“What are you so scared of?” Fareeha placed a hand on Angela’s leg. Her voice was as soothing as it tended to be after particularly rough missions, and it worked just as well as it always did.   
Angela smiled crookedly and shrugged one shoulder. “Usually we have plans and know what the terrain looks like. This time we don’t know what we might run into, and I’m scared that we won’t be prepared.”

“I think we are the best-prepared people currently hiking around here,” Fareeha assured.

Angela managed a small laugh. “Because we are the only people hiking here.”

“Maybe. Probably. But we will manage just fine anyway.”

“How could we not, we are awesome,” she smiled, though it was still a bit forced. “The sun will be completely gone soon.”

Fareeha nodded and looked around them. “Bivy night?”

“I guess so. I’ll make a rag for our shoes to dry,” Angela offered.

“Thank you.”

Angela sighed, looking over the open space in front of them. “I had really hoped for something better.”

“Me too,” Fareeha admitted and got up to get firewood for the night. 


	8. Let's Stay Dry Today

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GUESS. WHAT. New chapter, this was supposed to be the last one but for the sake of keeping the chapter-length more or less consistent, I made this into two.

The sun hadn’t risen over the wall of rock, the morning dew had collected even on the smooth rock around them. Fareeha was up first for a change, sitting up in her opened bivy and running her fingers through the small droplets of water on the thin plastic, drawing mindless patterns.

A small sound caught her attention towards the tree line, cracking slightly. She watched the big black bird watch her for a moment before it took off towards the mountain gracefully. “Have a good flight,” she whispered, watching it get smaller and smaller until she couldn’t see it anymore. She kept watching the spot where it had disappeared to. She’d just not tell Angela about it. ‘One for sorrow’, or how did that nursery rhyme go? 

No need to worry her, just in case corvids were part of her superstition too, right?

Just as the sound of a zipper sounded to her left two more black birds she hadn’t seen before rose, following the first one to the west. Whatever three of them meant. Or did this count as one and then two?

“Good morning,” Angela sounded sleepy, pulling Fareeha out of her thoughts.

“Good morning. Did you sleep well?”

“No,” Angela whined and threw back the fabric to feel the cool morning air on her face. “Mistake,” she stated but didn’t move to pull it back close.

“Me neither,” Fareeha admitted. “I slept better last night.”

“Well, last night we had at least  _ something  _ soft to sleep on.”

Fareeha wiggled back down to lay on her back. “I actually meant that I preferred being able to snuggle up to you.”

“As I said, something soft to sleep on,” Angela said, a soundless chuckle shaking her body. Fareeha shook her head, smiling. “You are unbelievable.”

“Well, am I wrong?”

“No no, you're right,” Fareeha assured.

Angela nodded to herself, looking at the cloudless sky. “Why are you awake anyway?”

“I don’t know,” she said, following Angela’s gaze. “I guess this morning is just too beautiful to sleep through.”

“We can’t pack up yet.”

“I know.” She turned her head back to watch Angela. “Do you have something to do until everything dries off a bit?”

“I have a card game somewhere,” she said, still watching the sky.

“Why didn’t we play yet?”

“We didn’t really have the time or daylight, I guess.”

Fareeha laughed. “That sounds like two good reasons.”

Angela finally looked over to where Fareeha was still laying back. “Is there something on my face?”

“Yes. I think I know why the sun can’t be found in the sky anywhere,” Fareeha smiled.

Angela blushed and turned her head again, looking towards the mountain this time. “You are so cheesy.”

“You knew what you were getting yourself into.”

“I’m really happy I did,” Angela whispered. “So so happy.”

 

“So why did you want to go on vacation again?” Fareeha complained, then breathed.

“Shh,” Angela shushed, breathing in, bringing her right leg to the front, breathing out and pulling the left leg towards the front as well. 

Fareeha knew the steps to the Sun Salutation, of course she did. Today she was distracted, though. For the sake of her own body, she tried to relax.

They both knew how much work the day would be, and it would be even more painful after the last night. This time they didn’t even have soft plant parts to push underneath themselves, just the hard rock, a thin air mattress, and their sleeping bags.

Angela pushed her hands up, finishing with a smile. When she lifted her eyes up to where Fareeha was standing she smiled. “I don’t know about you…”

“Yeah yeah I’ll make it through the day, don’t worry. But how great would it be if we found a bed next night?”

“Just a single bed standing in the middle of the mountains?”

“Well at least make it a double or my back won’t have anything good out of it.” Fareeha laughed, feeling proud of herself when Angela laughed as well. The fear of the previous day seemed gone, she credited part of that to the yoga.

“Maybe some grass at least. Some leaves? What else is there out there that would make for a good, soft bed?”

Angela squinted while thinking about it. “Squirrels?”

Fareeha laughed. “We can’t just sleep on squirrels?”

“True, we’d have to catch them first and explain to them why we want them to lay in a line.”

“Do you think they’d cooperate?” Fareeha asked, biting her cheek.

Angela shrugged with one shoulder “They probably wouldn’t, no.”

“Maybe if we bribed them with food?”

“I don’t think we can spare any of the food we have,” Angela said, making her voice sound as rueful as possible. 

Fareeha nodded. “Yeah, I don’t really think so either. Do you think it is smart to take the way that’s going away from the water? There is no fish without water.”

“There is also no fish in this water,” Angela noted after looking at the water they had been walking through the prior day. 

“Just because we didn’t  _ see  _ them…”

“Pretty sure fish don’t know how to make themselves invisible. And there are no places to go into hiding there. Just smooth rock.”

Fareeha looked at the water. She had to agree, Angela was right. There really was no fish here. “Why do you think that is?”   
“Maybe the water is from a waterfall and all the fish die falling down there?” Angela suggested. 

“That sounds weird but I won’t say it can’t be true.” Fareeha smiled. “Maybe we should just go and look for the waterfall instead?

“That would get us nowhere.”

“Actually, it would probably get us across country borders. That’s  _ somewhere _ .” Fareeha laughed. 

Angela rolled her eyes but smiled. “If you want to do that all of the sudden we can totally do that.”

Fareeha looked in the direction the water was coming from. It didn’t seem to change a lot. A steep wall and water as far as she could see. “No… I need a change of scenery.”

“Scenery?”

“Scenery.”

They smiled at each other and Fareeha rolled her head around, stretching it again.

“Do we have everything packed?” She looked around the place, the burnt out campfire had been put out completely and they had their trash collected in their packs. They had had a granola bar each for breakfast and shared the can of peas and carrot the previous evening. They were both painfully aware of the hard rationing they would have to do on their food if they didn’t want to go hunting.

“Do you think we’ll find something to eat?” Fareeha asked, clicking the buckle around her waist shut.

Angela shouldered her backpack and adjusted her hair so it wouldn’t be caught under the shoulder straps. “Some strawberries maybe? There are probably edible flowers around, clovers, pine needles are edible.”

“Pine needles? I’ve never eaten those before.”

“Young ones don’t even hurt when biting them the wrong way,” Angela assured.

“Those aren’t super nutritious though, are they?”

“Not really,” Angela admitted. “But they’re all easy to find and if eaten enough they will at least make the feeling of hunger go away for some time. Hopefully.”

“I know shooting a deer or something is awful but what if we need to do it?”

“I’m not going to do that. You know how much I hate it.”

“You have chosen the wrong job, did I ever tell you that?”

“From time to time,” Angela said, sounding fond. She knew exactly how Fareeha meant it to sound. She wasn’t the right person for the battlefield and everyone knew it. If she had to kill she would rather do it to a human than to an animal, though. “I don’t even like lab rats, you know.”

“I do,” Fareeha assured and smiled sadly at Angela. “But if we need to…”

“We’ll see when it happens,” Angela decided. “Can we stop talking about this, now? Please?”

“Of course. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Angela said quickly. She hated how guilty Fareeha sounded. “I know it’s something we should consider. I know it is something we need to think about. But I would prefer if you could just … not … right now. It’s too early for this.”

“You are right. We’ll see what happens.”

They had started walking into the general direction that was west, as they had decided. They couldn’t tell where the best place to pass was, so they just had to do it trial and error style. After what obstacles they had passed the last days they were confident they could do most things that were going to cross their path. Even Angela seemed more confident after sleeping. It was amazing what some rest and some kind of food could do for a person, especially one used to good food and sleep.

“Do you have a preference where to go?” Angela asked.

“Maybe over there? It looks like a path, maybe not official but like…”

“Mountain folk probably had their own paths,” Angela agreed.

“Or maybe still have. We might find a settlement of sorts,” Fareeha thought aloud.

“I don’t think whether that would be great or totally scary,” Angela said.

“A bit of both, probably,” Fareeha said, clearly understanding what Angela meant.

Angela nodded. “Scary because who knows what their first impulse will be upon seeing some strangers running around in their woods…”

“But great because they probably have supplies on food and  _ beds _ . More or less real ones, soft ones.” 

“Maybe not as soft as we are used to. But better than stone, probably,” Angela agreed. “But why would they give those to us? We don’t really have anything to offer, do we?”

“We can both work. Maybe they have animals that need watching or houses that need to be built?”

Angela laughed and nodded. “Yeah, perhaps. But since there most probably isn’t a secret mountain folk it doesn’t matter what we could pay them with anyway.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I think we would have seen at least some kind of hint that they are here. Some sort of sign along the way.”

Fareeha thought about that, pushing her lips forward and looking at her feet. “Maybe they only live in the deep mountains, the area that no one ever went to anyway.”

“I think there is no path of these mountains that people never went to, sorry to break that to you,” Angela said, patting Fareeha’s upper arm consolingly.

“I prefer my version,” she said and grinned at Angela.

Angela sighed slightly dramatic but kept smiling.

They had really found a sort of path that wasn’t drawn into the map. It was lined with more and more flowers and grass the deeper they got into the wilderness. There were flowers of all colors, so many that it looked like someone had spent years painting them.

Out here there were lots of bees, and especially bumblebees. Angela names as many of them as she could, even though she only really knew the German names for them. She simply translated them, because Fareeha didn’t know any better either. They found, according to Angela’s definitely perfect translations, ‘field bumblebees’, ‘tree bumblebees’ and ‘stone bumblebees’. Also a singular ‘forest bumblebee’.

“Who knows,” Angela said, “maybe I  _ am  _ right. It wouldn’t be the first time people just straight up translated things and decided that would be the scientific name now.

Fareeha agreed with her with a fond smile. “Why do you know so much about bumblebees anyway?”

“They are super fluffy and super chill. You can  _ pet _ them. They are so cute,” Angela explained, looking as happy as one could be.

The path went around the area in serpentines, making them walk way more than they had to, but they decided to not dump the path. It was easier to walk on the just slightly overgrown path of sand and stone that it would have been if they had tried to go through the sea of flowers. Some patches were so high and dense Fareeha had suggested just camping out there for a few days, in favor of a soft bed for the night.

Every time Angela had reminded her of the food-issue that was still not resolved.

“Are any of these flowers edible?” Fareeha asked at one point when Angela brought up food again.

Angela stopped and looked at the flowers. “Probably yes. I would be rare for all flowers in a wild patch to be deadly poisonous. But I don’t think we should take chances in figuring out which one of these want to kill us and which ones don’t.”

“Don’t you know any of these?” Fareeha asked, a bit disappointed.

Angela walked slowly along the path, looking at the plants closely.

“I am 95% sure that this is … edible. I don’t know the English name for it, though.” She picked up a lot of green stuff with small white blossoms. 

“I would get as much use out of the German name as I would with the English one,” she admitted.

Angela smiled at her. “It’s called  _ Vogelmiere  _ in German, it has lots of vitamin … c? Yes, pretty sure that's it. But it is used as a natural painkiller and against rheumatism, that I know for sure. It’s edible as food, but there is something about not having too much too often, I believe. I can’t remember right now.”

“But if we snacked on it now we will be fine, right?” Fareeha said, not really waiting for an answer before grabbing two hands full and trying some of the green and a white flower.

“Sure,” Angela agreed and got a handful herself. “What does it taste like?”

“Corn?” Fareeha didn’t sound so sure.

Angela looked at her for a moment longer before trying some of it herself. To her surprise Fareeha was right. “This  _ does  _ taste like young corn.” They started walking again at a good pace that still let them breathe lightly.

“Why do you sound so surprised that I’m right?” Fareeha asked, looking fake-hurt.

“I’m not surprised just…” Angela stopped. “I don’t know. I don’t have a word for it.”

“I am pretty sure surprised is actually the word you are looking for. It’s okay. I know you love me.”

“Of course I do. That didn’t change since the last time I told you, you know.”

“It better not. I don’t know how I would function without you anymore,” Fareeha laughed, only half joking.

“I think you have those mixed up. I am the one that needs you to function in a somewhat human way.”

“Ohhh!” Fareeha began. “You were trying to pass as  _ human _ this whole time?”

“Shut up!” Angela hit her arm lightly, laughing. She bent down to grab a second hand of flowers and snacked on them.

“This really isn’t very filling,” Fareeha said, throwing the last piece of the plants into her mouth. 

“I told you,” Angela said, looking apologetically.

“It’s alright,” Fareeha assured. “This is like chewing gum, at least it  _ feels  _ like I’m having something nice. Pretty sure pine needles would taste worse.” 

 

“You know what would be great now?” Fareeha asked.

“A bridge?” Angela guessed and pushed her hands onto her hips. 

The stream of water the path seemed to cross wasn’t nearly as deep as the water they had to walk through the day before, but the thought of getting their boots wet again seemed more than unpleasant.

“Could we jump that?”

Angela looked at the water skeptically. “Without the backpack … maybe.”

“We could throw them over? And then jump?”

“ _ I _ can’t throw either of the packs that far.”

Fareeha looked down the river, then up the other side. “I could make it I think.” She measured it with her gaze again, “Take off yours.”

“I’ll wait for you on the other side,” Angela said, taking off the backpack and looking at her shoes, then the river. She stepped back a few meters and looked at Fareeha, who just nodded at her. She took a deep breath and made a run for it.

She knew she’d make it the second she pushed off the side of the small river, preparing herself for the impact, rolling off as she hit the ground. On the other side, she heard Fareeha cheering, more than the simple jump should be cheered on, but it made her all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

Angela got up and brushed herself off, turning around to look at her girlfriend.

“I’ll try not to hit you,” she promised, grabbing her own backpack with both hands.

Angela stepped back a bit and gave a thumbs up.

Angela watched the backpack landing less graceful than she had, but still on the right side. “Definitely going to the gym with you when I get back,” Angela whispered, more impressed than she thought she would be. The second pack followed right behind the first.

Angela cheered even louder than she had been praised, loving the happy smile she got in return.

“Now you just gotta get over here yourself.”

“That sounds a lot like something a siren would say,” Fareeha said, squinting slightly at Angela.

“I think those live in the sea, babe.”

“There is water here, too!”

“Not enough for sailing.”

“I’m not much of a sailor anyway,” Fareeha said and shrugged. Before Angela could think of a smart answer Fareeha had leaped over the water, rolling into standing immediately.

“Show off,” Angela accused and pulled her in for a kiss to silence the possible protest. 

Fareeha didn’t much care for protesting at that point.

Angela hid her face in Fareeha’s neck. “You would make a great sailor.”

“I think they have lots of rules to follow.”

“You don’t mind rules.”

“I’d make a good pirate I guess.”

Angela pulled away to look at her. “Killing people for fabrics and gold?”

“Gotta make a living somehow,” Fareeha said. “I kill people for the modern-day equivalent of fabrics and gold for a living now, remember?”

“Gold, alright. But fabrics?”

Fareeha shrugged. “We get Overwatch-issued clothes. Lots of them. For … well.”

“It’s not all you do.”

“No, of course not. But it’s part of it. We knew that going into it.”

Angela nodded. “I know. You are right, I’m still not sure if you would make a good pirate.”

“What if I got to be a pirate with you?”

“I’m more of the village-witch-type,” Angela said, smiling but pulling away completely. “Come on, let’s get going.”

“Maybe we should have packed the tablet into some of our clothes.”

Angela picked up her backpack, resting it against her legs and digging for the tablet. It didn’t have any visible cracks and it turned on just fine, too. “We’re good.”

“We didn’t do those synch-backups, yet,” Fareeha remembered suddenly.

“Let’s try to remember it tonight. Hopefully in a bed.”

“Do you think we’ll make it that far today?”

“Not really, but I’m trying to stay positive here!”

Fareeha smiled back at her. “Ah yes, keeping up the good mood that doesn’t need upkeeping?”

“Exactly! So. We had enough of a break, let’s go.”

“You call that a break? We didn’t even sit down!” Fareeha tried to sound annoyed but failed miserably.

“You should be happy you got to take off your backpack! You don’t sit down while hiking,” Angela wiggled her finger and poked her girlfriend’s side playfully, making her jump back and laugh.

As they shouldered and fastened their backpacks they looked at the path that lay in front of them. It seemed manageable, especially since it wasn’t even noon. It was only a small mountain after all.

 

By one thirty Angela looked at the tablet, concerned. “I really don't know if we'll be able to pass over here.”

“What does this sign mean?” Fareeha asked and tapped on it before Angela could tell her to.

A small window popped oh in the lower right corner saying ‘wall anchors, suitable for climbing’.

“Do you think they're still secure enough to get down?”

“Probably,” Fareeha said. “But do we really want to get down there?”

“Getting down on the other side was our plan, wasn't it?”

Fareeha nodded and shut off the screen of the tablet before pushing it into her backpack and getting up.

“Let's just see where it'll get us. We have great experience with cliff walks, remember?” Fareeha joked and took the lead this time.

“Yeah, amazing experience. The best part was not being blown off by the wind and not having been attacked by an eagle or something.”

“They made friends with your hair-bird, that's why they left us alone.”

“If they are friends, wouldn't they have visited us all the time then?” Angela objected.

“Hm,” Fareeha hummed while thinking. “Maybe they were intimidated.”

“That must be it,” Angela agreed, laughing.

The rock was less smooth here, but between them and the edge, there was an almost hip high rising of rock. The view was stunning and they had a safety railing of sorts at the same time. How great could it get?

“Look at that,” Angela said.

“We'll have to walk for so much longer,” Fareeha said, groaning slightly but trying to hide it with a laugh. “You know, when you first proposed hiking I didn't think it would involve so much actual hiking.”

“For real?”

“Well did you?”

Angela thought back to when she first had the idea. It sounded like a great change of things, and like a good opportunity to relax. It was true, she had expected the walls between huts to be less of an actual workout and more scenic, romantic walks.

“Alright, I get what you mean,” she admitted.

“But I'm having a good time anyway!” she assured, not too quick to be true and with a quick look back at Angela.

Angela nodded, not sure if Fareeha had seen the small movement. “We're getting nice memories out of this, that's the most important thing.”

“Do you think we should have taken more pictures?” Fareeha asked, quietly enough that Angela needed a moment to piece together the question.

“No, I don't think so. We have some, lots of nice nature, and probably enough to remember what else we saw.”

“Maybe we should go through every day and write down some things that happened.”

“Like a travel diary?”

“Exactly!”

Angela nodded and smiled. “I think that is a great idea. We should do that tonight.”

“Do you have something here that we could write it down in or do you just want to like, type it on the tablet.”

“Do you even know how to write something with a pen on paper? Is that something that you young people are taught in school today?” Angela laughed.

“Yes? You were taught as well? Don’t you remember that, Angela?” Fareeha laughed in on the laughing.

“Well,” Angela began, “we had to write reports in med school by hand. Sometimes at least.”

“Did you learn cursive and all that?”

“Who needs cursive?”

Fareeha laughed. “Typing is way quicker anyway.”

“Did you know, that when smartphones first became a thing the kids growing up with them had a noticeable change in their brain? The area that is responsible for the movements of the thumb was way more active and connected that in their parent’s brain.”

“Is the one for like, finger movement for writing smaller in our brains?”

“Pretty sure it is. Though we need the shift motion in out fingers for other things than writing. But it is a possibility. We can run some tests back home if you wanna,” Angela offered.

“That would be so much fun. We can have a date night in the lab.”

“Since when do you think lab-time is fun?” Angela asked, laughing.

“Everything can be fun with you. And you are so happy when you can do silly lab.stuff.”

“Hey! My ‘lab-stuff’ isn’t silly!”

“Yours may not be. But it  _ can  _ be silly if you want it to be.”

“I suppose so …” Angela said, thinking of chair races on coffee breaks and hysterical laughing fits after working day and nights fuelled by caffeine and … other things.

The half high wall to their right rose for a few hundred meters, blocking the view, before disappearing completely. Angela hadn’t decided which one she preferred. Probably not being able to see, that at least meant safety.

“I see I can see the wall anchors!” Fareeha called just shortly after. 

Angela edged closer to the steep drop, looking down. “That’s gonna be … interesting.”

“We’ll just hook into these. We have two ropes each, those should definitely bring us down all the way.”

Angela smiled a bit scared. “Well, it’ll always go down. Easier than up.”

“We’ll be fine Angela. Maybe a few scratches but I am very confident into your abilities as a medic to patch us up just fine.”

“So basically as long as I make it down okay we’ll be fine?”

“Yeah, just like that. It’s always like that though, you should be used to it by now,” Fareeha said, taking the rope off of her belt, linking it into the wall.

“Are you sure that is secure enough to hold us?” Angela stepped closer looking at the steel a bit skeptically. 

“That’s what they are here for. This one looks alright, doesn’t it? I think falling out of the harness would be more probable than these betraying us, I think.”

“You don’t fall out of them if you tie them the right way! Do you know how to tie one of those out of rope?” Angela asked, already looking her own around her legs. It had been a while since she tried it, but it was a bit like riding a bike. Painful if you did it wrong so you didn’t really forget how to do it.

“Slow down a bit, then I’ll figure it out,” Fareeha laughed and watched closely as Angela pulled the loops around her legs and middle. “Okay, I’ll need some help with that.”

“Just let me get secure,” Angela said, smiling, and turned to link her rope to the wall anchor and putting on the leather gloves that were supposed to protect her palms from chafing.

Fareeha watched her, nodding slightly, taking a step back to make room for Angela. 

She noticed her mistake too late, her foot slipping on the brittle side of the rock. Fareeha’s hands shot out to grab for Angela, anything of her.

She was secured, she would be able to hold them surely.

Angela was still smiling as she turned around, hearing the sound of rocks hitting the ground below.

Her smile froze and her face was twisted into a look of terror, as she watched Fareeha tumble backwards, grabbing for her as quickly as she could, brushing their fingers together. Not enough to get a hold of her, watching helplessly as her boots slipped from the rock entirely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. I am sorry. Not really. Don't hate me too much, cliffhangers are fun! See you later!


	9. Unfortunately, Down Is Easier Than Up

“Fareeha!!!” Her voice was thrown back at her from the cold rock of the mountain.

Time didn't seem to slow down, not even a bit. It wasn't like a movie, she didn't suddenly see every detail or hear every little sound. She saw her falling. She heard her scream. She fell right through the thick branches of the trees, then Angela heard a smack … then again and again as it echoed, getting weaker every time.

“No. Nonononono. No. No. No!” As quickly as she could she grabbed for the rope that was already holding her to the wall, checking briefly that she would be able to support herself and jumped down faster than she should have, hitting the wall way too hard but it didn't register in her head. She jumped again, way too far, way too fast, skipping another wall anchor, setting the second rope into place and abandoning the first one. 

She blinked away the tears forcing her mind into work mode. This was no place for feelings. None for emotions, she had  _ work _ to do.  _ Work _ . This I what she  _ did _ . This is what she was  _ good at _ damn it!

Two more jumps.

She didn't feel her ankles bruise from the impact, didn't feel the pain on her knees and bare naked arms as she fell through the needles of the tree.

As soon as she had the solid rock of the ground under her feet she unclasped the rope and whirled around, hitting the wall with her backpack so hard she almost toppled over from it. She caught herself and looked around frantically until she caught sight of Fareeha.

The first thing Angela registered was that she didn't move. There was barely any blood on her or on the ground. She was spread out on top of her backpack with at least two fractured bones in her arms. 

Angela unclasped the backpack as she strode over to where her girlfriend was laying, setting it down within arm’s reach and kneeling down quickly.

She checked for a pulse, on both on her wrist and her neck, willing her own to slow down to get an accurate reading.

There was a heartbeat. Too weak. Too slow. But there. Right there under her fingertips.

“I'm here, I'll patch you back up. Don't worry, babe. I got you,” Angela rambled mainly to calm herself down. She couldn't think straight.

Why couldn't she think straight?

Fareeha would make a joke out of that if she said it aloud.

If she was able to.

Which she wasn't.

_ Concentrate, Angela!  _ she screamed at herself in her head. 

Quickly she placed her head over Fareeha's core, looking towards her nose. She was breathing. As shallow as her pulse was weak, but there.

_ Alive _ ! Angela's mind called out.  _ Biotic field emitter!  _ was next.

No.

If the bones in her arms and left leg were objected to the biotic field they wouldn't set right. The fracture had shifted them so badly. 

_ She's bleeding out on the inside. There is too little blood here. She needs the biotic! _

Angela shook her head to get it free of the anxious thoughts. Instead of thinking any further she grabbed Fareeha's forearm with both of her hands and pulled the bone apart, moving it.

It was the worst feeling. The bone shifting, possibly dragging the muscles around into a worse condition.

“I'm so sorry,” she whispered and nodded, jumping over Fareeha to get to the arm on the other side. Setting the humerus in a somewhat acceptable position was harder. It took her two pulls, but she finished in a position that was better, enough that it would be fine. Hopefully.

The open fracture of not only the tibia but  _ also  _ the fibula was the worst. The added blood made it slippery and setting it looked worse, since she could see what she was doing. Ignoring the sounds like the trained professional she was she snapped both back into a somewhat right place before wiping her hands on her shirt while basically leaping over Fareeha's legs to get to the biotic field emitters in her backpack.

She pulled out the first one and slammed it down next to Fareeha's chest as close as she could without setting it on top of her. She held the next one in one hand, debating if it was smarter to set them up together or after each other.

It only took her a handful of seconds to decide, before she placed it down on Fareeha's other side, closer to her knees this time.

Angela pulled out a bottle of water and sat it next to the first biotic field emitter, crossing her legs and watching Fareeha anxiously.

When her arm seemed to have pulled itself together a bit Angela carefully placed a blood-crusted hand on Fareeha's, lying still unmoving on the bed of pine needles. 

The angle was awkward, she was still strapped to her backpack, but Angela was still scared of moving her, as well.

“Come on. Please. I know you're still here. I can't bring you back. I  _ can't.  _ Get better for me. Please get better.”

Angela let her eyes wander down Fareeha's body. She couldn't tell what was wrong internally and she hated it. More than anything else.

The skin on her leg had pulled itself back together, leaving the blood looking out of place. “Your leg could do it. Make your organs do it. Babe. Love. Mein Spatz. Please. I love you. You can't just leave me. Not here. This is meant to be relaxing. Please open your eyes.”

She didn't open her eyes. Instead, she started breathing harder, sounding concerning even without a stethoscope.

Angela jumped up onto her knees, opening the clasps of the backpack and pulling the shoulder straps as open as possible to get them off of Fareeha. She grabbed her over one shoulder and underneath the other struggled with the weight of the backpack but managed to shove it far enough back with her foot that she could get behind Fareeha. She rested her upper body against her thighs and front, holding her head just in time for her to start coughing.

Angela could smell the fresh blood before she could see it, sputtering out of Fareeha's nose and mouth at the same time.

Angela held her upright around her middle with one arm, the other still stabilizing her head as good as possible while coughing like crazy.

Angela shifted slightly to get a better hold of Fareeha and stared against the wall in front of them, not seeing any of their surroundings.

Another fit of coughs shook Fareeha, so hard Angela was shaken with them. 

Slowly, she could feel some muscle tone building under her fingers. “I'm here, don't worry. You'll get better.”

It wasn't long before subconscious tone became movement, slow, but determined. Fareeha rolled her head around in a controlled way that made Angela feel so much better. If she could do this she would be able to get up in no time.

Fareeha leaned her head against Angela's. “Are you okay?”

Angela started laughing. She couldn't help it. Laugher shook her body, shook her head against Fareeha's until she wasn't laughing anymore but sobbing instead.

“You good?” Fareeha asked again, still slurring the words and sounding out of breath.

“Are you?” Angela asked back, doing her best to ignore the tears that were starting to soak Fareeha's hair.

“I've never been better,” she said.

Angela laughed once, sounding more like a hiccup. “Liar.”

“How did you know?” she was smiling but didn't dare to move just yet.

“The hamster told me,” Angela smiled a small smile.

Fareeha hummed. “Thought it was a bird?” Her speech got less slurred by the second.

“It might be both at this point,” Angela said, blinking the tears away that had almost stopped by then. A wave of calm seemed to wash over her, throwing her from emotional extreme to the other.

Fareeha hummed again.

“What hurts the most?” Angela asked, letting her hand slip from the side of Fareeha’s neck, down her arm where the bone had been fractured. When she didn’t get any complains or signs of pain from it she rested her hand there.

“Breathing. Everything around there,” Fareeha said, trying to take a deeper breath than before but ending up coughing again.

“You’ll be back to full health in no time,” Angela assured.

“Thank you.”

They sat in silence, Fareeha was so still against Angela she wasn’t sure if she had fallen asleep, and she didn’t dare move too much. She didn’t want to disturb her.

The first biotic field emitter gave out, then the second one. 

“I’m sorry,” she whispered against Angela.

Angela turned her head to look at her girlfriend. “I should have been more careful. I didn’t mean to be the source of your fear in this trip.”

“I won’t say I wasn’t scared-”

“I’m sorry.”

“ _ But  _ I don’t blame you. It wasn’t your fault, it was an accident. Accidents happen.”

“But they  _ shouldn’t _ .”

“Maybe not. But that’s why they’re called accidents. They are accidental.”

“I’m still very sorry.”

“I know.” Angela moved her thumb in circles where it was still resting on Fareeha’s arm. “Should we look for a place to set up camp?”

“No.”

“You want to keep walking after that?”

“No.”

Angela's thumb stopped for a moment before picking up the movement again. “Should I call in for pickup?”

“I don’t really want that either.”

“Do you have a plan what you want to do?”

“Cuddle with you. Forever.”

Angela laughed. “We can cuddle while waiting for rescue.”

Fareeha laughed. “We don’t need rescuing. There is not a single scratch on us.”

“I’m not so sure about that.”

“I am.”

“If you say so, I’m not arguing with you right now.” Angela smiled, leaning her head against Fareeha’s again. “I’m going to call in.”

“I don’t want you to move, though.”

Angela felt for the backpack behind her, grabbing it in a fist and pulling it to their right side. “Get the tablet,” she instructed.

Angela pulled her own pack closer, digging through it for the phone.

“This isn't very comfy,” Fareeha complained.

“Well, we’re on the ground what do you expect.”

Fareeha made an annoyed sound and pulled free the tablet, holding it up for Angela to grab. 

Angela took it and turned it around, feeling a cold stab in her stomach as she saw the screen. 

It was shattered beyond repair, the screen looking more like cobwebs than anything else.

She pressed all button combinations she could think of to revive the screen - to no avail. The screen stayed dead.

“Do you remember where on the map we are? Generally?”

“Why? Just send the coordinates.” Fareeha turned around in Angela’s lap, looking confused.

“I think you fell onto the tablet too hard,” Angela explained, handing the tablet to Fareeha to have a look at.

“I can’t imagine how that tiny fall was enough to destroy something as sturdy as this wonderful thing of glass that I could break with three fingers while half asleep.” Fareeha grinned at Angela.

“We should have synced the map earlier.” Angela looked annoyed at herself.

“Don’t worry, we have the best people working on our side. They’ll find us.”

“Not under these trees.”

“They would find us under these trees without any problem.”

“I thought you didn’t want them to break out the full rescue-mission equipment.”

Fareeha sighed dramatically, letting her head drop onto Angela. “You’re right, you’re right. Should we move?”

“I think planning should go before moving.”

Fareeha nodded slowly and sat up, grabbing for the backpack they had packed the map into. 

As she spread it out on the ground Angela was trying to find their general position already.

“Stop moving the map!” she laughed.

“Could you wait thirty seconds?”

“Fine!”

Fareeha laughed and shook her head, putting down the huge sheet of paper. She stood next to it as Angela crawled on top of the map putting her finger down, following the approximate path they had been walking.

“This is where I fell,” Fareeha said, pointing at the symbol of the wall anchors they had seen before.

“So that is where we are, as well.”

“No, we’re here.” Fareeha moved her finger about a centimeter forward.

Angela didn’t have to look up to know she was smiling. Fareeha tended to be really satisfied with herself in this kind of situations. Angela would be lying if she said she didn’t love it about her.

Angela looked up from the map, looking past the trees on all three sides that weren’t solid rock.

“Maybe we should go back a bit. That way,” Angela pointed into the direction they had come from. “It looks to clear out a bit over there.”

“Or we could go that way. There is a proper clearing maybe an hour from here.”

“It could be dark by then.”

“If they can find us through trees they’ll find us in the dark. Besides, they’re not teleporting here, you remember that, right?”

Angela blinked at Fareeha right. “Sure. Of course. Travel time. I didn’t forget about that.”

Fareeha smiled at Angela fondly.

“They could maybe land over there.”

“If it’s even enough,” Angela said.

“I’d prefer not climbing anything for a day or two,” Fareeha said, flinching at the thought. What? Not even trained soldiers were immune to bad feelings towards accidents they had. There should be something that could wipe the right parts of their brains … though that might bring a lot of ethical problems with it. Fareeha shook her head to get rid of the thought.

“Okay. Let’s go.”

Angela got up and folded up the map along its folding lines. She packed it back up neatly and got her backpack, picking up the empty emitters as well.

Fareeha had already shouldered her own and was tapping on her phone. 

Angela stepped over to look at the screen, where Fareeha was scrolling over the same map they had used on the tablet. It didn’t have their position markers, but it could give them more accurate coordinates than the paper map. If they could find their position on the small screen. It took longer than expected but eventually, she found the right area.

Angela typed the approximate coordinates into a message and sent it to Jack with the words “We’ll be there in about an hour, see you in a bit?”

Fareeha nodded. “Let’s get going,” she said and waited for Angela to finish up before setting a pace way faster than before. The terrain wasn’t exactly easy, but it wasn’t possible to fall very deep and there was still enough daylight to watch their step close enough.

“I’m really sorry this trip has to end so suddenly.”

Angela shrugged it off. “We had a good time, that’s what matters.”

“Well. Mostly.”

“It wasn’t your fault.”

Fareeha didn’t answer anything to that.

They had made it maybe half a kilometer before Angela’s phone vibrated wildly in her pocket. She fished it out, slowing down just slightly. She turned it over to read who was calling - OHQ. 

“Jack is calling from the official line,” she informed Fareeha.

“Well, it’ll be easier to track the call that way.”

“It’ll also be recorded.”

“Better behave in that case,” Fareeha advised, grinning.

Angela looked at her with faux exasperation, accepting the call quickly. “Alive and well.”

“Good. Do you want to see anyone in particular?”

“Who should pick us up?” she looked at Fareeha.

“Anyone who isn’t too busy right now.”

“Fareeha would love to see you,” Angela said, dodging a playful hit that was aimed at her arm.

“She said anyone who isn’t too busy,” Jack said plainly.

“Are you ever too busy to see us?”

She could almost hear Jack pinching the bridge of his nose in exhaustion. “How would I ever be busy in my position.”

“Exactly,” Angela smiled. “I knew you’d understand.”

“How urgent is it?” She could hear papers rustling in the background on the other end of the line.

“We’d prefer not to spend another night here. But you know, if you’re actually super busy we’ll be fine if you send anyone else. We’ll be okay with most of them.”

Jack sighed. “What happened anyway?”

“Shouldn’t you get ready to pick us up?” Angela tried to change the subject, fully aware that she wasn’t so sneaky about it this time. To be honest, there was no way to sneakily change a subject around Jack. If he wanted a question answered, he would have it answered sooner or later. Usually sooner.

“We’re on it, don’t worry. So. Report, now,” Jack demanded, very aware of what Angela was trying to do and how it was fully unfair to use that voice in a mission unrelated context.

“Alright, put away your commander's voice, jeez,” Angela looked at Fareeha, grinning and rolling her eyes, “We had a little bit of a scare out here. Surprisingly enough, it’s not actually that hard to fall a great way downwards in the mountains after you’ve worked your way up.”

“How badly are you hurt?”

“Not at all anymore.”

“Good,” Jack said, again. “Do I need to take anyone or will you be fine if I play taxi for you?”

“Bring Gabriel,” Angela suggested.

“Why?”

“Because you like spending time with him and he’s fun to have around,” Angela said.

Jack paused for a moment. “Alright,” he said slowly.

“Is there a way not to tell Ana until she sees we’re actually doing alright?” Angela asked carefully.

“She’s not at the base right now,” Jack informed her, a pen scratching over paper in the background.

“Awesome, thanks! See you in about an hour and a half, then!” Angela said cheerfully. Before he could get out an answer Angela hung up and pushed the phone back into her pocket, making sure it was deep enough that it wouldn’t slip out before picking up the pace again.

“Because he is fun to be around?” Fareeha questioned, smiling.

“He can be.”

“I know that. But what is your  _ actual _ reason?” Fareeha asked.

Angela shrugged. “I thought he’d appreciate what you’ll have to say.”

“What I … have to say?” she looked lost completely. What did she have to say to Gabriel?

“Yes, the thing you wanted to say” was all Angela said in response, and it was all she planned on saying on the subject as well.

As the sunlight grew dimmer and they got closer to the position they had planned as their destination and meeting point for pickup the ground evened out enough that it would provide a safe place for landing. They had left the treeline a long time ago and with it the lively songs of the bids. The place looked so dead without squirrels and birds, it was almost sad.

“We could wait here,” Fareeha suggested, looking around the small patches of grass in between the rocks and sand.

Angela tried to see as much as possible around them in the almost darkness. She looked back at the trees one last time, watching them melt into one big black blob with the mountain behind them. 

“Let’s hope they packed good night vision cams.”

“That’s base equipment,” Fareeha informed with great confidence and sat down on the still very uncomfortable stone of the ground. The patches of grass weren’t really big enough to make for a comfortable seat. Sitting down without taking off the backpack  _ and  _ without falling over either way forward or immediately backwards after hitting the ground proofed to be a true act of balance, but she managed fine in her own opinion.

“Come down here,” Fareeha said, tugging on Angela's leg playfully.

“No thanks.”

“Why not?”Fareeha asked while fake pouting.

Angela laughed. “Because if I sit down now I’ll need to get back up in a minute and I don’t feel like it’s worth the effort.”

“They’ll need more than a minute,” Fareeha said. “I can’t even hear them yet.”

“Still not worth it,” Angela said.

“Sitting is good for you,” Fareeha informed.

“Not really, not for too long.”

“Standing and carrying weight for too long isn't good for your back either.”

“To be fair, nothing is really good for human backs. Human backs are a joke. So are our eyes.”

“I feel like we've been over this before,” Fareeha laughed.

“Well, yeah. I really like talking about it. Because it is true.”

“Why are our eyes so bad anyway?” Fareeha asked.

“We used to be fish. So we were good at seeing under water. Then we left the water so our eyes were all like ‘OooOoohH better adapt to air since we don’t need to see underwater anymore and it would be helpful to see on land’ so they began with that but unfortunately that takes a very long time so now we're stuck with eyes that can't see in the dark when surrounded by air but at the same time they're shirty underwater,” Angela explained.

Fareeha laughed again. “Yeah, we've definitely been over this.”

“What can I say, I'm a passionate person,” Angela grinned.

“Oh, believe me, I know.”

“You say that as if it's something bad.”

“It really isn't,” Fareeha assured and leaned back against her pack.

Angela smiled and looked down at her girlfriend. 

“You know what,” Angela started, “we have rescue lights, right?” She bent down behind Fareeha to blindly pat down her backpack. “We should use what we have.”

“They’ll find us without those,” Fareeha assured.

“But we can make it easier for them.”

“I guess. But rescue lights mean we need rescue.”

“We kinda do,” Angela said.

“Maybe we do,” Fareeha admitted. “But we  _ would  _ be able to survive on our own a lot longer if we wanted to.”

“Just because we could doesn’t mean that we have to.”

“I don’t really want to do that either, to be honest,” Fareeha admitted.

Angela found the light, twisting it on with a triumphant sound, handing it to Fareeha over her shoulder. She took the blinking light in one hand and placed it on the ground in front of her, as far away as she could without leaning forward. Because at that moment she couldn’t really lean forward with all the weight on her back.

Angela stood back up behind her, placing her hand on Fareeha’s head and petting her hair, pulling the strands through her fingers. 

“Don’t do that.”

Angela stopped immediately. “Why?”

“It’s filthy, I haven’t showered in days!” she explained.

“Neither have I, it’s alright,” Angela assured.

Fareeha hesitated. “Okay then.”

Angela rested her knees against Fareeha’s backpack, the weight of the pack and Fareeha holding her up just fine, and started up the petting again. 

When the sound of the helicopter first sounded over the area Fareeha was almost asleep. The little light that was surprisingly bright blinking away happily in three short, three long, thee short lights, then a pause. Then again three short, three long, three short.

“Didn’t we have a less embarrassing light?” Fareeha mumbled.

“It’s not embarrassing. The only people who’ll see it are Jack and Gabriel. I don’t think I’ll ever be embarrassed in front of them at this point.”

“Yeah well, you do their regular checkups. The only one who has seen and touched more of them than you is when they touch each other,” Fareeha mumbled, still very sleepy.

Angela couldn’t help but laugh. “You aren’t wrong.”

“I can be right, too.” 

“I know. You’re right a lot.”

“I love you.”

Angela was taken aback for a moment. “I love you, too.” 

“Just felt like saying it,” Fareeha explained.

“I like hearing it. A lot,” Angela assured.

“You don’t get tired of it? Like, ever?”

“I promise you, I will never  _ ever _ get tired of hearing you telling me you love me.”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

It was getting harder to hear her sleepy voice over the growing sound of the helicopter, the lights blinking closer and closer as the helicopter hovered over them.

“Close your eyes!” Angela instructed, not sure if Fareeha’s brain was working fast enough to realize they’d want to check where they could land.

“Already are,” she assured.

The lights were blinding even through closed eyes, but they weren’t switched on for very long.

The wind picked up, then there was a thumping sound and Angela pulled Fareeha up to her feet, who was getting more awake by the second now that no one was petting her hair anymore. She didn’t plan on getting any more awake than she had to walk to and climb into the seat closest to the door, though.

Angela heard the door being shoved open, a silhouette appeared against the fairly dim light coming from inside the helicopter. 

“Heard you were waiting for rescue?” Jack called.

Angela helped Fareeha stumble over to the door, smiling at Jack as he pulled on her other hand, taking her backpack from her with sure quick movements before placing her in a seat. 

“Not rescue, pickup,” Fareeha insisted, smiling at Jack. “Good to see you.”

Angela climbed in on her own, putting her backpack with the first one and leaning over to fasten Fareeha’s belt. “How are you doing this wonderful evening?”

“Oh you know, just making a flight I told people not to do,” Jack smiled, sitting across from Fareeha.

Angela took the seat next to her girlfriend as she felt the motors revving up again. 

“It is stupid rule anyway!” Gabriel called over the sound of the motors.

Angela grinned as Jack rolled his eyes with a sigh.

As soon as they had reached their height of travel Gabriel switched on autopilot and joined them, sitting across from Angela.

“Please tell me why that is a stupid rule?” Jack asked before Gabriel had fastened the buckles of his seatbelt properly.

“Because autopilot doesn’t care if it’s dark. Also, flying for fun is … well, fun.”

Jack sighed, looking at Gabriel’s grin for another second before smiling and looking down. 

Angela smiled fondly while watching them. She had really missed them over the past days, even though she liked the quiet time she got to have with Fareeha.

Fareeha shifted in her seat to lean onto Angela as much as possible. 

“Evening Commander Reyes,” she smiled at him still partly asleep.

Gabriel saluted her, smiling a teeth flashing smile. “Rescued again, huh?”

Fareeha grinned, looking straight at Jack and waiting for him to catch her eyes before saying, “Who wouldn’t want to be rescued by Captain America every now and then?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have nothing to say other than thank you for reading ♥


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